


Life is Strange: Swan Song

by EvanTrails



Series: Life is Strange [1]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Drama, F/F, Romance, Supernatural Elements, Suspense, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2018-12-30 16:32:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 63,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12112734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvanTrails/pseuds/EvanTrails
Summary: Given the choice, whether to live a life of regret, or to challenge the Fates for another throw, a better throw against one's destiny. What was Max to do? A man who was wiped from existence offers her a choice, a chance to go back to that week and save everyone. But does one ever truly have a choice? Does free will exist or will Fate have its way? Please read and review.





	1. Another Chance

**Author's Note:**

> I originally put this on FanFiction. But once I completed it, I thought I could do better, so I decided to rework it and add it on here to see if it'll be more well received. So please let me know how I'm doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up, I'm currently reworking this story to a style I'm more comfortable with. So if you're seeing multiple things in different chapters, please bear with me, I am working on resolving these issues and continuing the story once I caught up. Thank you for your time.

**Chapter 1: Another Chance**

Max Caulfield steps out of college's lecture hall in Portland where she is currently going to college to study photography, of course. It was just after a brutally long and boring lecture that left her feeling drained physically and mentally. Even at age 22, she looked a lot younger than she actually was, which has been something she had to deal with a lot after turning 21. She didn't frequent bars often, but when she did she had to go through several people thinking she had a fake ID. Her once dark brown hair was now dyed bubblegum pink underneath a dark blue beanie. She wore a black shirt with a neon blue doe design on it under a black leather jacket rolled up to her elbows. Her jeans were dirtied with paint with several tears placed there by design. She wears Chloe's necklace, the one with three bullets on a black cord, a silver nose ring through her left nostril, and has a tattoo of a blue butterfly on the back of her right hand. Her old messenger bag hung behind her from her shoulders. All of this happened fairly soon after she left Arcadia Bay for the last time, and you can probably guess what caused this change in her.

Max puts her earbuds in and plays some of her favorite music as she walks towards the bus stop. The bus was waiting and she managed to get on just before it departed, which was lucky considering most times she had missed the bus and had to wait for an hour for the next one. As soon as Max got onto the bus she could feel something was off, but after a quick look around. There was the bus driver, a heavy set man humming a tune to himself as he drove along his route, a older couple near the back talking quietly to each other as they look at something on their phone, a guy sitting behind the driver looking straight ahead out the windshield like he was in the middle of a day dream, and three girls in the middle of the bus watching videos on their phones. The feeling remained, but Max couldn't find the source of it, so she decided to ignore it and sit down a few seats in front of the girls.

Once she was seated she pulls out her phone and cringes inwardly as she sees a text from Joyce Madeson. Max blanches as she puts her phone away, trying to ignore the sudden wave of memories threatening to break her composure. It was hard for Max to think that four years have already passed since... Max shook her head to get rid of that thought and the reminder of better/worse times. Thinking of her best friend always made her sad, and thinking about her death nearly crushed Max with the weight of the pain and guilt every time it came to mind.

Since the day Max used that butterfly photo to change the fate of Arcadia Bay, the pure Max, the one that always said and did the right thing, the one who was looking out for others, was gone. She definitely didn't go out of her way to make any new friends and completely dropped most of the friends she had since then, having decided it better to go back to being the shy girl who barely talks to anyone once again to avoid her pain. The only people she stayed in contact with were Joyce, though that has been becoming less and less frequent, and her parents, and even then she wasn't very talkative towards them. As soon as Max's senior year at Blackwell was over she had to get the hell out of Arcadia Bay. She couldn't handle being there, being traumatized by the events that saved so many people at the cost of the death of her best friend. After stuffing down those depressing thoughts, Max let herself flow with the music and passing scenery, anything to keep her mind occupied so she wouldn't start crying again.

Twenty minutes later, Max stepped off the bus a couple blocks away from her apartment in one of the more shady neighborhoods in the Portland area. As she walked, Max couldn't shake the feeling like someone was watching her that started when she got onto the bus. Trying to be discreet as she could, she took a look around, playing it off as stretching her neck. She thought she saw someone in the corner of her eye in the corner of her eye, but as she looked back all she saw was a gray cat with a white spot on its chest sitting on the sidewalk looking directly at her. Shaking her head and feeling a little silly, Max enters her rickety apartment building convinced her mind was playing tricks on her.

Max takes out her earbuds and turns off the musics as she climbs the stairs to the third floor where her apartment was. Max's place was a small one bedroom apartment with a metal door badly painted to try and blend in the with walls. She noticed several chips in the paint and shakes her head dismissively at it before entering. The hardwood floors of her apartment were covered with dents, scratches, and scuff marks left by the previous tenants. The walls were off-white with some parts yellowing from cigarette smoke, again from the previous tenants since smoking is a bad habit Max thankfully never picked up. The windows in the living room were painted over, which Max didn't mind since the windows only viewed the red bricked apartment building next door, leaving only a few feet of empty air between them.

All across the apartment's walls were framed photographs, some from Max's exploits after Arcadia Bay, others from her past. Some of Max's photos had won some awards and were featured in several art magazines. Though one wall didn't have any photographs hanging from them, instead there were six easels with painted canvases lined that wall. Painting was never one of Max's strong suits, and she didn't get much better with practice as the years went on, but these paintings were very special to her, for they captured moments from her life that no camera could take.

Starting from left to right, there was one of her and Chloe riding along in her truck, the day they were reunited after five years apart heading back to Chloe's house to fix Max's camera. The one after that was of Chloe dancing on her bed while she was smoking a joint. The next one, Chloe sitting on a bench at the lighthouse watching the setting sun directly in front of her before Max told her about her powers. The one after that, Chloe and Max holding hands while balancing on the train tracks after their encounter with Frank Bowers at the junkyard. The next, Max and Chloe laying in bed the morning after they broke into Blackwell Academy's pool. The final one though couldn't be seen, it was turned away, facing the wall but, to Max, it held the greatest significance to her. All of these moments couldn't be captured in photographs since these memories were from a timeline that no longer existed.

As soon as Max stepped into her apartment, she was greeted by a white cat that rushed at her to rub against her shins in greeting before looking up to her expectantly, letting out a meow. "Hey Bongo, give me a minute and I'll get you some treats."

Bongo gives Max a few purrs and shin rubs before she saunters off to the window, jumping onto the sill that looks right into the neighboring building as Max puts her bag down by her second hand couch, and picks up her instant camera. The same camera that Joyce gave to her, the same camera that was a belated birthday gift from...Max forced that thought from coming up as she looks on the wall to see several famed photographs of her and her best friend when they were kids. "I miss you Chloe." Max says quietly to herself before walking over to a full sized mirror and taking that day's selfie. Max then takes the photo and puts it into a small shoe box on the end table that was filled with her other discarded selfies. Max didn't like to admit it, but she hated every one of those pictures of herself. It wasn't the fault of the pictures per se, but the subject they held that she hated.

Max put the lid on the shoe box and got Bongo her nightly meal before cooking something simple for herself. Max and Bongo ate their meal silently together and then adjourned to the couch where Max pulls out her notes and books from her college classes, turns on some music to listen to, and gets started with her homework.

She kept her nose in the books for a few hours, but Max puts everything aside and stretches, needing a break after working so hard. She grabs an empty water bottle and goes to the kitchen to fill it with water before walking over to her plant, Lisa the third, and pouring the water into the plant's soil. Max got the the feeling that she wasn't alone again and turns to look over her shoulder. Sitting on her floor was that gray cat that was sitting on the sidewalk earlier. Max turned to it, pondering how it got in when she noticed something off about the creature, it was transparent. "What the?" Max ask in awe and starts walking towards the cat to inspect it.

As soon as Max moved toward it, the cat dashed off into Max's room disappearing from sight, but as Max entered the room and searched for the cat, she couldn't find it. "Maybe, I'm finally losing my mind?" Max asks herself as she scratches her head. She looks back to Bongo with a raised eyebrow. "What do you think?" Her white cat only blinked at her for a moment before finding grooming herself to be a more suitable use of her time. "Yeah, I think so, too. That's why I'm talking to you." Deciding that if she was going crazy she'd rather have some good grades to show for it, she went back to her schoolwork.

* * *

Max had fallen asleep while she was doing her homework and now her subconscious decided to play one of the greatest hits of her nightmares. She was back in Arcadia Bay during the storm that would destroy the fishing town. To this day the choice she made here haunted her and when she dreamed it would be of this moment, either this or the Dark Room incident, which she never fully recovered from. The massive tornado heading towards the town where everyone would die.

The scene was frozen in time, nothing moved like it was a 4D picture taken by one of the eeriest photographers in history, and yet the sounds continued as if the scene was playing normally. The powerful gusting wind, the raw crackling of electricity in the air, the overwhelming roars of thunder, and the crashing of debris as it slammed into anything in its path. Max turned around and standing exactly where she remembered was Chloe and herself, frozen at the moment Max made that terrible choice. There was no good option, not for Max at least.

This recurring nightmare always brought on the cold sweats and night terrors despite the lack of activity. Nothing ever moved or changed, all she could do was listen to the last conversation they had together over and over again.

"You could use that photo to change everything right back to when you took that picture...All that would take is for me to...to..."

"Fuck that! No...No way! You are my number one priority now. You are all that matters to me."

"I know. You proved that over and over again...even though I don't deserve it. I'm so selfish...not like my mom...look what she had to give up and live through...and she did. She deserves so much more than to be killed by a storm in a fucking diner. Even my step...father deserves her alive. There's so many more people in Arcadia Bay who should live...way more than me..."

"Don't say that...I won't trade you."

"You're not trading me. Maybe you've just been delaying my real destiny...Look how many times I've almost died or actually died around you. Look at what's happened in Arcadia Bay ever since you first saved me. I know I've been selfish, but for once I think I should accept my fate...our fate..."

"Chloe..."

"Max, you finally came back to me this week, and...you did nothing but show me your love and friendship. You made me smile and laugh, like I haven't done in years. Wherever I end up after this...in whatever reality...all those moments between us were real, and they'll always be ours. No matter what you choose, I know you'll make the right decision."

"Chloe...I can't make this choice..."

"No Max...You're the only one who can."

Max could feel the moment coming and wanted to scream at herself, do anything to make her stop, to look for a third option, anything that could save everyone and stop this overwhelming horror of what was coming next. The nightmare, of course, wouldn't let her try any of that. No matter how hard she tried to speak up, to think of any other way, she couldn't, and it broke her heart all over again.

"Max...it's time..."

"Chloe...I'm so, so sorry...I...I don't want to do this."

"I know, Max. But we have to. We have to save everybody, okay? And you'll make those fuckers pay for what they did to Rachel. Being together this week...it was the best farewell gift I could have hoped for. You're my hero, Max."

Max could still feel that hopelessness as she kissed her best friend, not sure how things would have turned out if Chloe had stayed alive. She needed something to show how much Chloe meant to her, some kind of closure, one last goodbye. She wished more than anything to be able to stay, but she couldn't, not with everyone else's lives at stake.

"I'll always love you...Now get out of here, please! Do it before I freak. And Max Caulfield? Don't you forget about me..."

"Never."

"Incredible." A male voice said to Max's right.

Max turns and sees a guy standing beside her. He was almost a foot taller than her wearing a gray hoodie, a white t-shirt, brown khaki pants, and black shoes. He had short brown hair and brown eyes and was looking at the frozen Max and Chloe. He turns his head to look at the dreaming Max before raising his arm and snapping his fingers loudly. The tornado starts moving again, kicking the wind up all over, the sounds of the storm intensify. The scene unraveled itself into a fury of howling wind and flashes of events before darkness crept in.

* * *

Max awoke and quickly sat up, she was covered in a cold sweat and confused about what she saw. It took her a moment to realize she was back in her apartment breathing heavily on her couch. She looked at her phone and saw it just turned 5:28 am. Max turned and set her feet on the floor and put her head in her hands as she trembled. That dream ended so differently from the other times she's had it. It usually ended with Max going back in time and allowing Nathan Prescott to shoot Chloe. But this time... "Who was that guy?" She had seen that guy before, but for the life of her she couldn't place where.

"You could always ask me, you know." The male voice from her dream says from the direction of Max's recliner. Max shoots to her feet and looks towards the guy from her dream sitting in her chair with that gray, transparent cat laying on his lap taking a little cat nap. Something the guy saw in Max's face made him slightly flustered as he watched her. "Or...not...I think I may have over stepped my -"

"Who the fuck are you?!" Max shrieks, interrupting him while she was freaking out and grabbed one of her school books, readying it to throw at the intruder.

The man puts his hands up, trying to placate Max before she did something violent. "Relax, please, I'm only here to talk, I swear." The man says trying to show Max no hostility. The cat on his lap didn't even raise its head as Max started her little meltdown. Bongo however was on the back of the couch, her hair standing on end and she was growling at Max.

"Get the hell out of my apartment!" Max yells in fright before there was the sound of someone pounding on Max's door interrupting her.

"Is everything alright in there!" The voice of Max's landlord shouts through the door, he sounded tired and cranky. Max walks over to the door and opens it without taking her eyes off of the guy sitting in her chair. Despite everything, the guy didn't look bothered in the least now, in fact as Max got closer to the door, the guy's smile only got bigger and bigger. An older man walks in with a baseball bat, his hair disheveled, and wearing a closed robe. Bongo took this chance to scurry out the front door, clearly frightened by what was going on inside the apartment. "What's going on?" The landlord asks gruffly, looking around her living room for any sign of a threat.

"This asshole broke into my apartment!" Max explains, while pointing at the intruder. The intruder just kept on that friendly smile, looking like he was getting more and more amused.

The landlord's eyes skim over the apartment, completely passing over the guy before he starts walking through the rest of the apartment. Max was confused why he would leave her alone with the intruder until he came back into the living room looking mad as hell. "There's no one here, explain yourself, young lady."

Max looks at him in confusion before pointing at the guy again. "How do you not see him? He's sitting right there!" The guy give the landlord a small wave, looking like he was trying not to laugh.

The landlord looks at the chair then back at Max like she was crazy. "It's after 5 in the morning, Miss Caulfield, I have to be up for work at 8. I don't care what kind of drugs you take, but if you disturb me one more time with this, then I'll have no choice but to call the police and have you evicted."

Max was completely baffled by this and kept looking between the landlord and the guy sitting in her recliner. "But...how..." She sputters, completely lost about what's going on.

"Okay..." The guy says with a half-sigh, half-laugh. "As amusing as this is, I've had my fill of entertainment for now, this is just getting sadder by the minute." He raises his hand and snaps his fingers again and suddenly Max opened her eyes with confusion, she was laying on her couch once again, covered in cold sweat and breathing heavily.

"Now, can we possibly do this civilly or do you want your landlord thinking you're a crazy person again?" The guy says, still seated in the recliner. He was watching Max, looking completely at ease and unphased by the sudden time reversal. "I mean we could, repetition is essential for comedy, but when only I can enjoy it, it loses it's appeal."

Max slowly sits up and feels Bongo rubbing against the back of her head from the back of the couch. Max looks at her and remembers that she ran out when she opened the door for the landlord before. She scratches the cat's ears and stares dumbfounded at the guy. "What the...Did you...just..."

"Go back in time and redo that entire thing? Yeah." The guy says with a bright smile before continuing. "I've gotta admit, kinda glad this conversation is going better than the last one, hoo boy. That crazy look in your eye, it was funny as hell. Not to you obviously, but you have no idea how long its been since I've actually talked to someone other than this furball." The guy says absentmindedly petting the cat sitting in his lap. "Oh man, I've missed it. And I never thought I'd ever say that." The man looked absolutely thrilled as he kept talking, which only confused Max more.

Max's mind felt like wool, so she gets up, goes into her bathroom, and splashes water on her face before coming out to face the guy again. This whole thing brought up so many questions. Max decides to start at the beginning. "Who are you?"

"My names Steve, nice to meet you...your name is?" The guys says leaning forward slightly, smiling like a big idiot.

"Uh...Max...you can call me Max. I'm sorry, but what the hell are you doing here?" Max asks before she sits back down on the couch.

"Besides scaring the shit out of you?" Steve says with a small laugh. "Yeah, I haven't talked to anyone in such a long while and after so long of people not seeing you, you just get used to moving freely without any kind of manners. I mean seriously, the things people do when they think no one can see you is incredible. One time I was just chilling at this place watching a football game and this dude just come in and whips out his-"

"Stop!" Max says, holding up her hand to stop him from talking. "Stop, please. What the fuck are you talking about?"

Yeah, I may need to explain...without going on another babblethon." Steve says scratching his chin thoughtfully. "I'm a time traveler, like you. But I did something no time traveler should ever, ever do, so now I don't exist anymore."

"You...don't exist? Then how are we having this conversation?" Max asks in disbelief, her head spinning from that little bombshell.

"It's...complicated. It might be better to show you than to explain. So..." Steve nudges the cat on his lap, which makes the cat look up at him in annoyance before jumping off his lap and onto the couch to sit next to Bongo who start sniffing each other in greeting. Steve stands up and walks into the next room before going behind the wall dividing this room from the other. Without any warning Steve's head comes through the wall with his hands on his head making antlers. "Boo!"

Max had to cover her mouth to muffle the shriek at what she just witnessed. Steve comes back in the conventional way and sits back down in the chair like what he did was natural. Max could only stare at Steve in awe. "How did this happen to you?"

Steve looks away, looking reluctant to talk. "I went back in time and killed my father before I was born. So now I don't exist...which fucking sucks if you want my honest opinion. You'd think being erased from existence would, you know, erase me from existence. But apparently I'm not that lucky."

Now Max was getting a little scared, she was sitting in a room with a murderer. "You...killed your own father?"

Steve rolls his eyes like that was a stupid question. "He was a serial rapist, among other things, and one of the biggest pieces of shit you would have ever meet. And trust me when I say I don't lose much sleep about it...or ever. Nobody should either."

Max leans back into the couch to digest that piece of information before shaking her head to clear it. "Okay, letting that one slide for now...wait! Now I know where I've seen you before, you were on the bus." Max says remembering. "You were the only one who wasn't dicking around on their phone."

"Ding ding ding! Tell her what she's won, Johnny!" Steve says like a game show host, gesturing to some invisible scoreboard next to him before he started talking like a normal person again. "I'm impressed that you remember me and noticed what was off. That means you're observant. That is a very good thing, Max." Steve says with a wolfish grin.

"Why are you here?"

Steve sits back down in the chair and leans forward looking very serious. "I'm here to make you an offer."

"What offer?" Max asks leaning forward as well, intrigued.

"You've seen me turn back time just like you and you've seen me use a power you're unaware of when I entered your dream. You're observant, but you need some time to fit the puzzle pieces together." Steve gives Max an impish grin like what he was offering was obvious. "You know what I'm offering, Max."

Max's heart skipped a beat, wanting to believe this was true more than anything, but couldn't bring herself to say it aloud. "I'm...I'm gonna need you to say it." Max says, suddenly shaking in nervousness.

"You might not like this, hell, most people don't, but it'll make things a bit simpler for you to understand. So please pay attention, cuz I hate to repeat myself." Steve says seriously before taking a glancing look all around the apartment before locking his eyes on Max's once more. "Your apartment is small and filled with only the bare essentials of accommodation, including a bunch of second hand furniture. But you go to college at an art school and you don't have a job, judging by the lack of any uniform. So you're either well off or your parents are and they are very supportive of your career choice. You live in this armpit of an apartment in the ass end of Portland by choice. You've won some awards for your photography, but instead of having them hanging in some gallery somewhere you have them here. So, you like to be acknowledged for your work, but you don't really want to be remembered for it."

Steve gestures around the entire apartment. "There's dust everywhere, except for three key areas. The vicinity of your couch, the paintings along the wall, and the picture frames right by the door. You don't care much for cleaning, but these areas are special to you so you keep them immaculately tidy." Steve continues as if he's running through a mental list. "The pictures of yourself that are handing on the wall are from only a few years ago, since then you've changed your looks considerably, which isn't too unexpected considering the era we live in, but changing so much so quickly means that you couldn't handle being the person you were, so you had to change who you are, in your eyes at least. The box of discarded photos of yourself by the door, along with all this tells me you've had a traumatic experience, one that you feel you feel responsible for and cannot cope with."

"The pictures in the frame right next to the door are of a girl, judging from the various other ones of her across the walls, she was a close friend to you, but you're absent from the pictures near the door, so they either you took those pictures or you weren't there for them, given the style of the pictures taken it's safe to assume you didn't take them, so she's a friend you haven't seen in a long time. A friend that is no longer with us." Steve says sadly before looking over at the easels. "But here, these aren't just some random paintings. These are your pain given substance in this reality." Steve sighs before looking back to Max. "These are moments that happened to you, but you couldn't take pictures of them since those moments no longer exist. This...is your story, Max. The story of how you had one last time with a childhood friend before you had to make a terrible choice. One life for the lives of many others." Steve points to the last painting that was turned away. "And from that day on, when you looked into a mirror, you hated what looked back at you."

Max was completely flabbergasted at that. This guy took one look around her apartment and somehow came up with her entire story as if it was plain as day. "How..." Max shakes her head, trying to clear it, but her every nerve was fried. She couldn't handle how he had gathered all of this information and decided to stick with the matter he didn't bring up yet. "What is your offer?"

"I can help you, Max." Steve says, speaking slowly for Max so she heard every word. "I can give you one last chance to save your friend and all of those people you had saved before." Steve leans forward again, keeping his eyes locked on Max's eyes as he said these next words with great care. "We can bring your friend back and save your town."


	2. Resolve

** Chapter 2: Resolve **

Sunlight drifted into Max's bedroom from the window. It was barely visible between Max's building and the neighboring one, but it was enough to light up Max's darkened bedroom. She laid in her bed, unable to sleep through the rest of the night after such a strange encounter with Steve. She stared at the ceiling, still trying to wrap her head around everything that happened.  _"I can give you one last chance to save your friend and all of those people you had saved before. We can bring your friend back and save your town."_  Who knew it could take only a handful of words to turn her entire world upside down and throw it off its axis. Max closed her eyes and goes over everything in her mind for the hundredth time.

* * *

"Are you serious?" Max asks in excited disbelief.

Steve holds up a hand to stop her before she got ahead of herself. "Look, I can make no promises, in fact the odds are heavily stacked against us, but I have a feeling that we could actually do it."

"How?" Max asks, seeing several problems in Steve's proposal. "Anytime I go back through years of time I'm only there for a few minutes and I can't leave the area of where I go back to."

"We have use your memories to go back. With your memories and my experience, we can make it back and stay there." Steve says with a confident smirk.

Max raises an eyebrow not believing that load of crap. "Experience? You look younger than me, dude, you can't be that far ahead of me."

Steve chuckles in amusement before nodding his head to the back of the couch behind Max. She turns and sees Bongo in mid stride, frozen in place. Max then looks at her phone and sees it read 5:31 am. They've been talking longer than three minutes, so he must have stopped time after she came back from the bathroom. Max looks back to Steve in amazement at the ease he was showing as he held time still with little effort. The last time Max had tried that she felt as if her mind was melting into goo and running out her nose.

"I may look young, but that's because I don't age since I've become...well...this." He gestures down at his incorporeal form. "I've been using my powers for years. Yes, we have the same powers but you barely know what to do with them." Steve explains then stands up. "You've been neglecting your power. Don't. You're more powerful than you can possibly know. Here, let me show you." Steve says raising his index finger and uses it to write in the air, leaving trails of sunlight in his finger's wake until it spells out "SUP?"

Max's eyes widen in amazement and disbelief at that display. "H-how are you doing that?"

"Bringing some light from yesterday to this moment. If you were in your apartment yesterday at noon you would have seen a similar phenomenon but with traces of the darkness of tonight." Steve explains before waving his hand, wiping the message away. "Unfortunately no one but other time travelers can see these messages. Kinda sucks, but also neat when you want to look through time."

Steve puts his hands together and slowly pulls them apart diagonally from each other, making a window frame of sunlight in front of Max. "This might get a bit trippy for you, so hold on to your butt." Steve warns before he slowly rotates his left wrist and time starts reversing within the window. It started by showing Max and Steve talking, then just Max doing her homework, to an empty apartment with only movements from Bongo being seen. Everything in the window was going in reverse as the window keeps going backwards in time.

Through the window, Steve showed Max the day she moved into the apartment, through the lives of the previous tenants, and the ones before them and so on. Then to the construction of the building, the city. Time started rewinding faster, showing thousands of sun and moon rises as the earth devolves right before her eyes till the land itself started moving showing ocean as far as the eye could see. Back through the time seeing everything from the present until there was nothing but stars and the empty darkness of space in front of her.

Steve claps his hands together, which made Max jump at the suddenness, and breaking Max's focus on the show Steve had put on for her. The window disappears, breaking Max from her wild eye stare of the history of the planet from this exact spot. Max looks up at Steve in disbelief. "That...was amazing."

Steve smiles at Max smugly. "Thank you. I don't get to show off all that much. And the furball is hardly ever impressed." Steve says giving the spectral cat a mock glare, which went completely ignored by the creature.

Max was in awe and wanted Steve to teach her what he knows. "How did you do that? You have to show me how to do that!"

"Yeah, no." Steve says simply, which made Max tilt her head at him in confusion before he continues. "I'm not here to teach you, Max. I'm not here to show you how to use your powers for good or for bad. I don't care about that and honestly neither should you." Steve says before holding up his hand and phasing it through the coffee table. "If you keep trying, you might end up just like me and trust me...that is a fate you wouldn't wish on anyone, even your worst enemies." Steve says with all seriousness as he withdraws his hand from the table, proving his point.

"But how can I stop everyone from dying if I can't control my powers?" Max asks, more confused than ever.

Steve sighs heavily and rubs his eyes in frustration. "I don't know, man. But I can't have someone else suffer this if I can stop it." Steve takes a few steps back. "Think about what I said, really think about it. Like I said, there are no guarantees, so keep that in mind. We could go back and fix everything, or we could go back and everything happens as it did before, or we could go back and make things a hell of a lot worse."

"Then why did you make me this offer in the first place? Why tell me any of this?" Max asks desperately. That surprised her, the desperation she felt after being adrift in a sea of despair when someone finally comes along and offers her a chance to finally come ashore once again.

"Because, this is our chance at freedom, Max. Think about it and I'll talk to you later. Peace!" Steve snaps his fingers, time starts again and he and his cat were gone.

* * *

Max played that conversation through her head a hundred times and only came up with more questions than answers about what she should do. She gets up from bed and walks into the living room, to the pictures of Chloe on the wall next to the door. "What should I do, Chloe?" Max asks desperately, trying to divine Chloe's intentions from the pictures.

Memories of that week started flowing through Max's mind, memories Max had tried her hardest to bury deep inside herself. It was the hallway from that nightmare before going to the lighthouse that last time all over again. Riding in Chloe's truck after she saved Max from Nathan at Blackwell's parking lot. Talking with Chloe in her room after being apart for so long. Telling Chloe about her power at the lighthouse after her vision of the tornado. Holding hands on the train tracks. Sneaking into the pool at Blackwell to have a swim. When Chloe dared Max to kiss her. Everything up to the night of the storm up at the lighthouse. It was the best and the worst week of her life and it left her broken inside. Every moment from then till now had been an existence of regret and pain.

And now, Max has a chance to do something about it, maybe make it better. Maybe make it worse. Or not being able to change a god damned thing. "How does that asshole think I can make a decision like this, huh?" Max says as tears flow from her eyes, the pain coming back in waves that threatened to consume her once more.

Max needed to talk to someone, anyone, about this opportunity. To get an outside perspective about what to do, to get some objectivity to settle her mind. Max looks to her phone and reads the last message from Joyce she ignored from yesterday.

**Joyce: Hey Max. It's been a while since we've talked. Just wanted to let you know I was thinking about you. I hope to hear from you.**

Max wipes the tears from her eyes and thinks about how she wants to respond before typing.

**Max: I'm sorry I haven't talked with you in a while, Joyce. I know I've been really selfish for the last few years, but right now I have a problem and need to talk to someone about it. Is it okay if we talked?**

Max hits send and sat down on the couch looking at the paintings on their easels, trying to calm her nerves as she waited. There was about thirty seconds of silence that filled the apartment before her phone rings. Max sees it's Joyce and prepares herself for what was to come. Max really loved Joyce, she was like her second mother. It never took her long to respond when Max wanted to talk, and she really appreciated that about Joyce. She takes a deep breath to steady herself before answering the phone. "Hey, Joyce." Her voice was groggy from lack of sleep and all the thoughts flowing through her mind.

"Max, you have no idea how good it is to hear your voice. What's going on, sweetie?" Joyce asks, sounding friendly and concerned.

"It's good to her your voice, too. I've got...a really weird question, and I need to hear an honest answer. Can you do that for me?" Max asks, her voice breaking slightly halfway through the question.

"Anything, darling. What do you need?" Joyce says without missing a beat.

Max takes a breath to settle her voice and failing. "If you had a chance to go back in time and save Chloe's life, would you? Even if in doing so you might have to let everyone in Arcadia Bay die?"

Joyce takes a moment before responding in confusion. "What's brought this on Max?"

"Please Joyce, I know its a lot to ask out of the blue, but I need to know your answer." Max says pleadingly.

"Okay...Well that is a hard question, but I'd have to pick Chloe. I am her mother after all, though. So of course I'm biased."

"Even if it meant losing your life as well?" Max asks as more tears start flowing at the thought of Joyce dead too.

"Max, is everything alright? You're not using any kind of drugs are you?" There was a hint of a scolding in that question, it made Max glad that Joyce still cared after losing Chloe and William. Losing your family would, understandably, make anyone a bit grouchy, but Joyce wasn't like that.

Max actually laughed at that, remembering all the trouble Joyce had with Chloe doing drugs. "No, I'm not using anything, I'm just having a really hard day, and I needed to talk to someone about it."

Joyce laughs softly as well, sounding as if she was crying as well. "I understand, Max. I wish Chloe was back with us. I would give anything for it."

"Me too, Joyce." Max smiles and stands up, going to the final painting that she had turned away in shame as she finally heard herself say it. "Me too. I got to go, Joyce, but thank you so much. For everything."

"Max I'm always here for you if you need something. Now get some rest, sounds like you need it." Joyce says with concern. "Goodbye, Max."

Max hangs up and turns the last painting around, seeing the massive tornado heading for Arcadia Bay in the background. In the foreground was Max and Chloe kissing for the final time before she used that butterfly photo to go back and let Nathan kill Chloe. Max looks to her side and sees Steve standing beside her looking at the painting as well.  _"I wish I could rest, Joyce, but I've got some work I gotta do."_  Max thinks dries her eyes with her hand. "So what do we do?"

Steve gives Max a small smile. "We go over everything you remember." Steve says simply. "Once we get a general lay of the land, so to speak, that's when we'll give this a try."

* * *

Two days passed and the entirety of Max's apartment was littered with papers filled with notes and drawings involving everything that Max could remember happening during that week. Max lays on her couch, having crashed pretty hard after the extensive, constant work and planning without sleep. Finally she opens her eyes and looks at Steve who was staring at the notes plastered to her wall. "Dude, don't you ever sleep?" Max says groggily as she rubs the sleep from her eyes.

"I don't eat, sleep, drink, or anything." Steve says distractedly while keeping his eyes on the wall carefully studying every detail Max had wrote down upon those pages.

Max stretches and groans as she gets up from the couch. "Sounds like hell." Max says as she walks up to the wall and starts going over it as well.

That got a angry chuckle out of Steve. "You've got no idea." Steve grumbles before pointing to the wall to change the subject. "But I think we got most of the gist of what happens this week. At least the events you know about anyway, but unless you've literally been everywhere in that town that week's time there's going to be some margin for error." Steve takes a step back and looking at Max with intrigue. "I still can't believe how quickly your powers developed in this one week alone." Steve says nodding at the wall looking incredibly impressed.

Max raises an eyebrow at that. "Really? Why?"

"You learned how to turn back immediate time within seconds after learning you could do it, how to temporarily stop time, and how to jump back through significant amounts of time, if only temporarily and with some restrictions. You've got no idea how long it took me to get a grip on that kind of power." Steve says pacing around the room energetically. "Then there's you're visions of the storm. You got your first vision before you even got your powers. Which is amazing, and also gives me a little more hope about what we're doing."

That last part made Max a little confused. "What do you mean by that? What gives you hope?"

"Well you didn't have your powers till after your first vision of that tornado. So that makes me think that the storm isn't tied to your powers as you thought it did. It made us lose a puzzle piece, but now we safely assume the storm wasn't related to your powers, just someone's life/death." Steve explains, it made Max snort when he actually said slash when saying life/death.

But that amusement disappeared quickly and Max realized she was even more confused by that insight. "It wasn't me? But I was making holes in the fabric of the universe. I saw it."

"You think you can somehow destroy the universe with your power?" Steve laughs and shakes his head humorlessly. "The universe is big, bigger than you can even fathom. One person in Arcadia Bay, Oregon can't do anything to the universe like that. Any tears you make are like a pin prick on your skin. Sure it might bleed for a few seconds, but it'll heal. All those 'holes' were just your mind telling you its tired from the use of your power." Steve explains with a smile. "You might be a badass Max, but you're not that badass. No one is."

Max thought about that and thought it made a sort of sense. And the fact that it made any sense at all kind of scared her. "You said the storm was related to someone's life/death. I thought that was supposed to be Chloe?"

"Maybe, maybe not." Steve says turning towards Max. "This is just from personal experience mind you, so don't get your hopes up too much, but when this happened to me it was connected to two lives, not just one."

"You've said that you've been through something like this before. What happened exactly?" Max asks curiously.

Steve waves his hand dismissively. "I won't go into detail, but the people in my experience was my sister or my biological father. If Chloe is like my sister, than all we have to do is find the one that's like my father. But I don't know if that's what's going on here since I only have what happened to me as experience, so I don't want to rely solely on that." Steve explains, deliberately avoiding talking about his past Max notes. "But once we get there we'll get the answers we need to stop this. I know we'll find it somewhere." Steve looks back to the wall one last time, making sure to remember everything on it. "Alright, I think we're all set."

Max nods then looks at her two day old clothes. "Maybe I should change and shower before we go?"

Steve laughs slightly and shakes his head at that. "You're going back into the body of your 18 year old self, you're clothes and smell aren't coming with you."

"I smell?" Max asks before lifting her arm and taking a whiff. "Ew! Why didn't you say anything before?"

Steve rolls his eyes. "Do you really think I care about that? I'm a dude and we're on a mission. The smell is the last thing on my mind. Priorities, young padawan. You need to have your priorities in order."

Max rolls her eyes back at him. "Boys." She says with distaste and a shake of her head to get back on track. "Okay, then are we ready? How do we do this?"

Steve smirks delightedly and turns to face the wall again, holding out his arms to frame it all. "The best place to start would have been from that butterfly photo you took, but since that's gone after Chloe got shot we're gonna have to use one of your memories instead." Steve turns back to Max and puts his hands in his pockets. "Close your eyes and clear your mind. Now this is important. I need you to think about that Monday afternoon. Think of a time and a place and let that fill up all your mind. Think of nothing else."

Max does as he asks and thinks back to that day. The first thought was waking up in Jefferson's class after the first vision. Suddenly Max felt as if her body was flooding with energy, enough that she couldn't sit still. The room started spinning and Max felt as if she was falling and was about to hit bottom when...

"Alfred Hitchcock famously called film 'little pieces of time' but he could be talking about photography, as he likely was." Mark Jefferson said from the center of classroom. Max jolts in her seat and looks around the familiar classroom.

Max couldn't believe it as she saw as Stella's pen fell to the floor. She looked up and saw the time, 3:50 pm. Then saw a ball of paper fly through the air and hit Kate Marsh in the head. Several seconds later, Victoria's phone vibrated with an incoming call on the desk beside her.

_"I did it."_  Max thinks in amazed disbelief. _"I'm back at Blackwell._ "


	3. Butterfly

**Chapter 3: Butterfly**

Max's heart was beating rapidly in her chest in a mix of fear and excitement. Her head was spinning along with the room around her and she felt nauseous after such a tumble through time. Max thought she was prepared for the trip, but as she looked around the classroom the memories she tried hard to bury came bursting back to the surface.  _"Stay on point, Max."_  Max scolds herself silently, putting the memories back deep down until she could get to a place to deal with them by herself. The last thing she needed was to have a meltdown in the middle of class as soon as she arrived.

She looked out the window, half expecting to see the whiteness that was the edge of her time trip like when she used photos, but she didn't see any kind of barrier whatsoever. Steve's form of time travel was leagues above hers and Max could help but feel a bit jealous of that, despite Steve telling her that he had plenty of time to practice. After losing Chloe, Max completely let go of her powers, never picking them up unless her life was in danger and that was only because her instincts unconsciously used her power to save her.  _"Don't let your mind drift. You have a long way to go if you want to save..."_ The thought of Chloe being alive made Max's eyes widen as her wandering mind finally came back to her purpose her.  _"Chloe! I have to save her! I have to no matter what!"_

It took every bit of self control Max had to not get up and run out of the classroom right there and then, but, thankfully, some semblance of rational thought kept her firmly planted in her seat. _"Okay, this part should be easy."_  Max remembers Steve telling her when they were going over all of this back in her apartment. _"You're going to want to go after Chloe right away, but time is a fickle bitch. So if you want Chloe to believe you about your abilities, you'll have to recreate that Monday as close as you possibly can. There may be some wiggle room, considering all those alternate timelines you created. So use your judgement the best you can when dealing with everything. For the love of God, think before you act. We may only get one chance, so use it wisely."_ Max calms herself and tries to relax and think as Mr. Jefferson continued on his lecture in the middle of the classrom.

Mark Jefferson. The Dark Room. Rachel Amber. Killing Chloe. Using Nathan and his family.

If looks could kill then Mark Jefferson would have died about 20 times over from the glare Max was giving him. Just the sight of him filled her with hate over what that man had done, to her friends and classmates and to her personally. That son of a bitch was responsible for so many people getting hurt or killed. The memories of his Dark Room were some of the darkest memories Max had the displeasure of retaining.  _"You'll get what's coming to you, asshole. I guaran-fucking-tee that."_

Max looks on her desk and picks up her old yellow camera, turning it over several times in her hand. Though she got a better camera after this one broke, she still had sentimental feelings for the old camera. It hurt when it broke, but right now that was the least of her worries. She gives Jefferson a glare and takes a selfie to start this off.

Right on cue, Jefferson stops his lecture to address Max's interruption. "Shh. I believe Max has taken what you kids call a 'selfie'. A dumb word for a wonderful photographic tradition. And Max...has a gift." Jefferson says, making sure he had the attention of every student in the classroom. "Of course, as you all know, the photo portrait has been popular since the early 1800's. Your generation was not the first to use images for 'selfie-expression'." Jefferson smiled at his dumb little joke, but the rest of the class might as well have been crickets. "Sorry. I couldn't resist."

Max rolls her eyes at his attempt on humor and looks around the room, but couldn't see her incorporeal partner in time.  _"Where the hell are you?"_  Max wonders to herself.

* * *

Rome, Italy. The exact moment that Max landed back in her classroom at Blackwell at the Roman Colosseum.

Steve had been walking up to the top of a set of stairs with his spectral cat walking next to him, but came back between one step and the next. His brain was doing somersaults in his head and it made him lose his footing. "SHIT!" He exclaims as he tumbled down the stone steps, grunting as he hit each step until he finally slammed into the barrier separating the spectator seats and the Colosseum below. "OW! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?!" Steve screams in outrage from the ground.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at Blackwell. "Now Max, since you've captured our interest and clearly want to join the conversation, can you please tell us the name of the process that gave birth to the first self-portraits?" Jefferson asks in his usual smug tone.

Without missing a beat and putting some traces of her hatred for the psychotic hipster in her voice. "The Daguerreian Process."

"Oh." Jefferson says slightly surprised by Max's tone and the quickness in which she answered. "Well...That was easy, Max."

"Yeah." Max says dismissively before she looks at Victoria Chase who was glaring at Max with scorn, not like Max cared about what the queen bitch thought though. She learned during her first time around that Victoria was very insecure about herself and her art, and that was why she has been a bitch for most of the time she's been at Blackwell. But right now, in Jefferson's presence and the prospect of what she was attempting, she couldn't find a fuck to give.

Jefferson was put off for a moment at Max's nonchalant response to his question but quickly regained his composure and continues with the lecture. "So, uh...The Daguerreian Process made portraiture hugely popular, mainly because it gave the subjects clear, defined features. You can learn more when you actually finish reading the assigned chapters. Obviously..." Jefferson gives Max an inquiring look, trying to gauge Max's sudden shift in attitude and mood. "Max has read them."

The bell rang, and everybody gets up to leave class. "And guys, don't forget the deadline to submit a photo in the 'Everyday Heroes' contest. I'll fly out with the winner to San Francisco where you'll be feted by the art world. It's great exposure and it can kickstart a career in photography. So Stella and Alyssa, get it together. Taylor, don't hide, I'm still waiting for your entry too. And yes Max, I see you pretending not to see me." Jefferson says like he knew everything before going over to his desk, with Victoria following closely behind.

Flashes of Max's time in the Dark Room came to mind and it made her skin crawl knowing the bastard responsible for such a traumatic ordeal was only 20 feet away from her.  _"I can't wait to see you go to jail, you sick bastard."_  Max thinks before getting up from her desk. Max looks over to see Kate looking at her notebook trying to will herself to hide in it to stop the depression she was feeling.  _"I will make sure you never feel like you need to go up on that roof, Kate. I promised I'd save everyone...and that's what I'm going to do."_ Max vows to herself as she walks over to Kate's desk and smiles warmly. "Hey, Kate."

Kate looks up distractedly and nods at Max in greeting. "Oh...Hey, Max."

"Kate, listen to me." Max says softly, her voice full of warmth and love. "Always remember that you're not alone. I've got your back, no matter what happens. So do a lot of other people. We all care and we're all here for you. I need you to know that."

The sincerity in Max's words obviously got to Kate as she places a hand over her heart as her eyes start to water. "Max...that makes me feel so blessed for the first time this week...I...I don't know what to say..."

"That's okay, neither do I. Maybe we could both use a hug." Max says holding her arms open for Kate. Kate gets up and hugs Max for a touching moment before they separated.

"Thanks." Kate says with some hope she had been previously lacking. "You always know the right thing to do, thank you, Max." Kate says gratefully before sitting back down at her desk. Max nods, actually glad to be interacting with old friends, even if, to them, it wasn't all that long ago that they talked.

Max then turns to Jefferson and Victoria, a wolfish grin appearing. _"Okay, I've been waiting to relive this moment again."_  Max thinks as she approaches Jefferson's desk. "Mr. Jefferson, can I talk to you about the Everyday Heroes contest?"

"Can you see I'm talking to Mr. Jefferson now?" Victoria says in her usual bitchy tone, trying to keep Jefferson all to herself.

"Yes, I see." Max says giving Victoria a sideways glance as if she didn't deserve her full attention right now. "But maybe you shouldn't."

That made Victoria pause for an uncertain moment, not sure what Max was getting at. "Uh, and why not?"

"Hold on, Victoria." Jefferson says studying Max carefully, but trying to be discreet about it. "Are you okay, Max?"

"I will be when Victoria understands that hiding behind a screen, posting videos of people is incredibly cruel and unfair." Max says giving Victoria her full attention how showing some compassion towards her that even Max, right now, didn't think she deserved. She hoped to make her into a decent person, but to build someone up, you have to tear them down. "You're smart enough to know how easy it is to hurt somebody, to destroy their life. I just want you to think about how much it would hurt if somebody did that to you. You can always makes the right choice, Victoria. I know you've got a good heart. I've seen it."

"Listen...I...I didn't..." Victoria says, genuinely speechless after all that.

"You don't have to explain." Max says, feeling as though she was getting through to Victoria. "There's no reason for you to be so insecure that you can't be happy with your own talent. Wouldn't it be better to lift people up than to bring them down? You could inspire people..."

Victoria quickly goes back into her usual bitchy self in defense to Max calling her out on her bullshit. "Okay, I don't know what you're talking about now...do I, Mr. Jefferson?"

Jefferson wisely takes a step back. "I think I should stay out of this one, Victoria."

Victoria crosses her arms in defeat and pouts slightly. "Then I guess I'm done talking."

Max smiles at her in victory. "And that's okay too."

Victoria turns and walks out of class hurriedly, which brought the conversation back to Jefferson. "That was kind of random, Max. What did you mean?" Jefferson asks, still trying to discreetly find out what was making Max act out.

Max thought it was actually kind of funny that now she knew what he was thinking after learning of who Mark Jefferson really was. "It was nothing Mr. Jefferson." Max says trying to hide her anger with a false smile. "I don't have a photo to submit yet, but I'm on top of it. I think John Lennon once said that 'Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans."

That made Jefferson grin and drop his inquisitive gaze. But it just made Max want to punch his psychotic face even more. "Max, you are on fire today. All the right answers. Good. Make sure you finish working on it by today. I have faith in you."

 _"Let's see where that faith will land you, asshole."_  Max thinks before walking out of the classroom. The hallway was as busy as she remembered it, it was filled with students getting ready to leave for the day.  _"Now I have to get to the bathroom and save Chloe. And get some evidence for David_." Max thinks as she walks down the busy hallway going towards the girls bathroom.

As Max walks into the bathroom, both memories she had of this place claimed the forefront of her mind. Saving Chloe from Nathan, thus letting the storm come into being to destroy Arcadia Bay, and letting Chloe die so everyone in Arcadia Bay would live. Suddenly Max felt cold as those thoughts of seeing Chloe gunshot and bleeding on the floor made her heart start pounding rapidly again. Max goes to the sink and washes her face then stares into her reflection on the mirror.

 _"Remember, we don't know everything that's going to happen, the butterfly effect doesn't just ripple forwards in time, it spreads outward like a ripple in a pond. So only use your, what did you call it? Rewind power? That's a bit of an understatement when you think about the scale of things...damn it, we're getting off track here. Just don't use your rewind power unless you absolutely have to. We don't want the universe to fuck with us any more than it has to while we're attempting this."_  Steve advised her before all this started.

"Dude, where the hell are you?" Max grumbles as she looks around the bathroom, hoping to see him come walking through the wall or something like that. "I could really use someone to talk to about all this stuff." Max says quietly before she looks through her journal and sees the torn photo she was going to submit to Jefferson, the one with her in front of her "Max Caulfield Photo Memorial Wall" that she tore up moments after taking it. She throws the pieces on the floor so events would happen as they did before. She then looks to the side as she sees the blue butterfly come flying in through the window.

"Here we go." Max says determinedly as she follows the butterfly to the end of the stalls as it lands on the bucket. Max kneels down and takes the photo, grabbing the hammer from underneath the janitor's trolley to smash the glass on the fire alarm and waits.

She didn't have to wait long as the door to the bathroom opens and Max hears the voice of Nathan Prescott, the psychotic rich kid that managed to make Max actually feel sorry for him even though he had been nothing but a crazy bastard to her, not to mention the fact that he killed Chloe's friend Rachel Amber, oh, and Chloe herself. "It's cool, Nathan...Don't Stress...You're okay, bro. Just count to three...Don't be scared...You own this school...If I wanted, I could blow it up...You're the Boss..." Nathan says, psyching himself up for the encounter between him and Chloe.

 _"I'm sorry, Nathan. But it's clear that you can't get the help you really need here. Maybe some time in prison or a insane asylum can settle you down."_  Max thinks getting out her phone and getting the video recorder ready for the evidence she'd need to condemn Nathan and Jefferson.

The door opens once again. "I hope you checked the perimeter, as my step-ass would say." Max's heart skipped a beat upon hearing Chloe say that to Nathan again. The one person she thought she'd never hear again was speaking, alive and well. It again took every ounce of willpower to not go out to her friend right then and there, but she needed to stick with the plan to recreate the day's events and for that to happen she had to let the scene play out as it should until the right moment. "Now, let's talk bidness-"

"I got nothing for you." Nathan interrupts Chloe with anger in his voice.

"Wrong. You got hella cash." Chloe says, letting her anger loud and clear to Nathan.

"That's my family, not me."

"Oh boo hoo, poor little rich kid. I know you're pumpin' drugs n' shit to kids around here..." Chloe threatens before really laying it on thick for Nathan. "I bet your respectable family would help me out if I went to them. Man, I can see the headlines now-"

"Leave them out of this, bitch!" Nathan interrupts again, getting angrier.

"I can tell everybody Nathan Prescott is a punk ass-" Max could hear Chloe shoving Nathan, even from her spot on the other side of the room. "Who begs like a little girl and talks to himself!"

Max could practically picture what was happening now without even looking. Nathan pulls out his gun and points it at Chloe in a show of power and intimidation. Max knew that Nathan didn't really plan on using the gun, but the fact that she remembered Chloe laying on the cold tiled floor only made her anger of Nathan and his gun grow. "You don't know who the fuck I am or who you're messing around with!"

"Where'd you get that? What are you doing?" Chloe says as fear overwhlems her. "Come on, put that thing down!"

"Don't EVER tell me what to do." Nathan snarls at Chloe. "I'm so SICK of people trying to control me!"

Max peaks out and sees Chloe looking terrified at Nathan and the gun. "You are going to get in hella more trouble for this than drugs-"

 _"NOW!"_  Max thought, then smashes the glass on the fire alarm and slams her hand on the button.

The fire alarm starts going off and Nathan looks back in confusion. "No way."

Seeing Nathan distracted, Chloe took the opportunity to knee Nathan in the groin and push him to the floor. "Don't EVER touch me again, freak!" Chloe exclaims before running from of the bathroom.

Max quickly pokes her cellphone's viewfinder out and hits record as Nathan gets to his feet and tries to put the gun away in his belt behind his back. "Another shitty day." Nathan quickly leaves the bathroom as well.

Max stops the recording and slides down the stall to the floor with a huge sigh of relief. "Okay, Max. You just saved Chloe, now you save everyone else." Max says pulling up her text messages and her school pamphlet with David's number on it before writing the text.

**Max: Mr. Madeson. You're after Rachel Amber. Mark Jefferson and Nathan Prescott are guilty. His Dark Room is under the Prescott's farmhouse. You know the location. They're sick and dangerous. Stop them. Here is some dirt on Nathan Prescott to help in the meantime.**

Max uploads the video to the message and sends it before deleting the message to get rid of evidence from her phone. Max waits for a couple minutes inside the bathroom before exiting, making sure to keep clear of David and Principle Wells. Seeing that they were gone, Max was clear to just head out of the school with the rest of her classmates without talking to the pair of them and incriminating herself. "Please, please let this work." Max pleads to herself before walking towards the school's entrance.

Once again Max was on the main campus of Blackwell. Deja vu was really hitting Max hard as she looked around to all the people she hasn't seen in a few years. She descended the stairs as the PA system says. "Would Nathan Prescott please come to the front office. Thank you."

" _Looks like David went right to Principal Wells with that video. So far so good."_  Max thinks before looking at the missing posters of Rachel Amber on the ground.  _"I'm so sorry, Rachel. You will have justice for what Nathan and Jefferson did to you. I swear it."_  Max thinks before crossing the campus. As she does her phone gives a text alert and she checks her phone.

**Warren: Hi Mx, can you get my flashdrive? I need some info. And space. Hullo?**

Max smirks at Warren's message. After everything that happened in Arcadia Bay she didn't keep in touch with him. It was something that she always regretted, Warren was a good friend to her when she first came to Blackwell and he didn't deserve her silence after Chloe's death, but just thinking about all that happened to her, stuff she could never tell anyone, kept her from keeping in touch with him or anyone else. Now, however, she had the chance to change that.  _"I just wish he wasn't so into me."_  Max thinks before texting back.

**Max: Sorry. Running late. Insane day.**

**Warren. I'll meet you in the lot. Looking cool. You'll see.**

**Max: My camera will be ready. See you shortly.**

Max puts her phone back in her pocket and heads to the school's dorms. Max walks through the courtyard in front of the dorms, stopping right in front of Victoria, Taylor, and Courtney who were chilling on the stoop, blocking the only way in. "Oh look, it's Max Caulfield, the selfie ho of Blackwell." Victoria says getting a small chuckle out of Courtney and Taylor.

Max rolls her eyes at that, thinking she may have gotten through to her in Jefferson's class. "Seriously Victoria, can we please not?" Max asks, giving her warning glare.

"Ouch, scathing." Victoria says with a mocking smirk before getting up in Max's face. "I don't know what kind of shit you were talking about with Mark - Mr. Jefferson -Besides you being a slight bitch about it, I actually liked what you told me."

"You know exactly what I was talking about Victoria." Max says, being direct with Victoria since she didn't want to deal with her shit. "You posted that video of Kate at the Vortex Club party when she was clearly messed up. That was a really mean and cruel thing to do, and I think you should take it down. I've seen this kind of thing happen before, it doesn't go well. So please, please, take it down."

That took Victoria by surprise. "How do you know..." Victoria stops then looks away for a moment, sounding disgusted. "Fine Max, I'll take it down. It really was in bad taste." Victoria says with uncharacteristic honesty. Taylor and Courtney looked at each other before looking back to Victoria in confusion.

"Thank you, Victoria." Max says with a small smile then moves around her, up the stair and to the door, but she stops just before opening it, turning her head to look over her shoulder to Victoria. "I know we might never be friends, Victoria, but can we not be enemies?"

"I don't know, Max. I don't know who would make that decision." Victoria says crossing her arms over her chest.

Max smiles warmly at Victoria. "That would be us, Victoria. I'll see you later." Max says before opening the door and going up the stairs to the girls dorm.

Thankfully the hallway was deserted as she walked down the hall, so Max had no trouble going down to room 219, her dorm room. Max looks at the blank slate beside her door and picks up the dry erase marker. She quickly draws a picture with her name below it before putting the marker back on the white board and enters her room.

Looking around the room Max could help but smile. She thought she'd be getting used to this by now, but the fact that everything was the same as she remembered it made her really happy. Being back here, trying to change everything was starting to fill her up with actual hope that she could really do it.  _"You have work to do Max, don't forget it."_  Max thinks before going to her desk to get the flash drive.

Instead, she found Dana's post-it note.  **"Hey Girl, I borrowed your drive so I can watch some flix while I study. If you need it back just track me down in my room xoxo D."**

"Damn it, I totally forgot that Dana borrowed Warren's flash drive." Max says shaking her head at forgetting that detail. She heads out of her room and back into the hall. As she did, Juliet comes barging out of Dana's room and locks the door behind her.  _"Wowser. I completely forgot about this."_  Max thinks to herself, then she realized she actually used 'wowser', it was a word that died a long time ago.

"You can't get out now, Dana! So tell me the truth, or rot in there!" Juliet shouts in anger, pressing her back to the door and pulling out her phone to text her boyfriend.

The light bulb in Max's mind turns on as she remembered the situation now. Victoria had sexted Juliet's boyfriend Zach, then told Juliet that Dana was the one that did it, just to start drama between Dana and Juliet over Dana stealing Logan, some jockstrap on the football team, from her.  _"Sometimes I wonder if Victoria really is a bitch just because she's insecure and not just to start unnecessary drama."_  Max thinks before going into Victoria's room. She goes to Victoria's laptop and prints out the damning email to clear Dana of Juliet's jealous rage.

Max grabs the paper as it prints then goes down towards Dana's room, stopping outside of Kate's room to see her white board. She uses her hand and gets rid of the "Will bang 4 JESUS" on Kate's slate, putting a peace sign in its place.

Max continues down the hall and walks up to Juliet. "Juliet Watson, you stop that right now." Max says with uncharacteristic authority, making Juliet stare at her in awe. "I found out this." Max says handing the email over. "Victoria was the one to send that sext that you and Dana are fighting about." Max says, just wanting Juliet out of her way so she could get her flash drive and go meet Warren.

Juliet takes the paper, shocked that Max even knew her name before she silently reads it. "Of course..." Juliet says in outrage before unlocking Dana's door and moving out of the way. Dana opens the door and Juliet face-palms herself over the misunderstanding. "I'm an asshole. I'm sorry, Dana."

Dana looked more than a little pissed at Juliet. And she had every right. Being locked in your own room over something that you didn't do would make anyone just a little cranky. "You are, and I hope so! You really think I'd mess with Zachary?"

"No." Juliet admits, looking back to Dana apologetically. "But I get stupid jealous. I owe you dinner. Still love me?"

Dana gives a sly smirk at Juliet, not letting her of the hook that easy. "And you do my laundry."

"Thanks Max." Juliet says gratefully, giving a friendly smile and a thumbs up to Max as she starts walking down the hall. "You're like the Blackwell Ninja." Juliet pulls out her phone to call her chickenshit of a boyfriend again. "Now let's see what Zach has to say about Victoria."

Dana beams at Max for saving her. "You set me free! Thank you! Warren's flash drive is on my desk." Dana says before going back into her room and sitting on her bed, looking tired by what just happened.

"Thanks Dana." Max says going into the room and grabbing the flash drive off her desk.

"Seriously, thanks again. I can't believe Juliet locked me in my own room." Dana sighs heavily, shaking her head at the stupidity of the situation. "Real mature."

"Juliet can surely get her rage on." Now that she remembered this, Max knew how Juliet was and how she acted when she was pissed. "I hope she doesn't kill Victoria."

"Zachary should worry too. As if I'd let that ego case jockstrap touch me. But I bet Victoria would be all over that action...or has been." Dana says thoughtfully before smirking at Max. "Max you're smart to be a loner here. Though Warren obviously likes hanging with you."

"He's a good guy. I just wish he'd go after Brooke instead of me." Max says wistfully, thinking about Chloe and her feelings for the punk girl.

That got Dana's attention as she leaned forward inquisitively. "Does our little Max have a crush on someone? hm?" Dana asks whimsically, trying to pry the info out of Max.

Max rolls her eyes, but couldn't hide the slight blush that colored her cheeks. "Hey, look at the time! I need to get outta here and give Warren his drive back."

"Oh come on! I need some details. Please Max?" Dana says putting on sad puppy eyes.

Max sighs heavily, not really wanting to get into it right there since there was more important things to do. "It's not something I'm very comfortable talking about right now, but I promise when I do I'll talk to you first, deal?"

Dana takes a moment to think on that then nods in agreement. "Deal. Don't keep me waiting too long Max."

With that Max walks out of Dana's room and out of the girl's dorm. Going to meet Warren...and Chloe.


	4. Reunion

**Chapter 4: Reunion**

As Max makes her way back through the dormitory's courtyard, she notices Kate walking from the school's courtyard. She was actually smiling, which surprised Max because David should have been there to question Kate, but it also filled Max with hope over changing Kate's attempted suicide that was supposed to happen tomorrow afternoon. "Hey Max. Thank you so much for what you told me earlier. It really turned my day around."

"Not a problem, Kate. How're you doing?" Max says, really glad to see Kate looking upbeat for a change.

Kate shuffled her feet nervously, looking like she was having an internal debate, but something must have tipped the scale because she pulled out her phone. "There was this video floating around on the internet of me at the Vortex Club party last Friday night. I had a sip of wine and I blacked out, but Victoria took a video of it and posted it online." Kate admits, feeling okay enough to open up to Max. Max found it nice that Kate trusted her enough to tell her what has been wrong instead of finding out second hand like the last time she lived through this week. "It was humiliating for me since it seemed like everyone in school knew about it. But I just checked and the video was taken down. And I even got a text from Victoria apologizing about it." Kate says before handing Max her phone, showing her the text.

**Victoria: I'm sorry that I took that video of you and posted it online. It was really a mean thing to do and I wouldn't blame you if you hate me for it. You should hate me for it, there was no excuse for it. I wanted to make some changes in my life and I thought I would start with this. So I took the video down and flagged any copies of it that I could find. Hopefully this whole thing will be over soon. And again, I'm really sorry, Kate.**

**Kate: That was very nice of you, Victoria. You have no idea what this means to me. I don't hate you, and I'm really glad you're trying to turn over a new leaf. It gives me hope for the future. Thank you.**

Max read the message in wide-eyed surprise.  _"Wowser, did I really make that much of an impact on Victoria?"_  Max thinks while smiling at Kate and handing her back her phone, glad that this one message might have just saved Kate's life. "I can't believe I'm reading this, especially since it's coming from Victoria."

Kate gives Max a big smile of her own as her phone rings. Kate looks at it and her smile gets even bigger. "Oh, it's my dad, I'll talk to you later Max." Kate says before walking away and answering her phone. "Hey, daddy."

Max's smile widens as she continues on her way towards the parking lot.  _"This is amazing. I'm actually doing some real good now. I've got to keep this going if I'm going to fix everything."_  Max thinks as she walks across the courtyard in front of the school building.

Once in the parking lot Max glances around the area, spotting Juliet sitting on the small wall to her left, looking at her phone with sadness and anger. Warren was directly ahead sitting on the hood of his car waiting for Max. Frank's RV was parked in the corner of the lot, for what, Max didn't know, probably something to do with a drug deal of some kind. And finally Chloe's truck, parked illegally across a couple of parking spaces, one of which was a handicapped sign.

 _"Of course Chloe would be the one to do that. If there was one person in Arcadia Bay that didn't care about something like that, it was Chloe."_  Max thinks, feeling like there were a million butterflies fluttering in her stomach, but she couldn't help but smile at the actions of her favorite delinquent.  _"If all this goes right, then I'll be seeing Chloe real soon. I'm so nervous."_  Max thinks as she walks across the parking lot to Warren sitting on his car.

"What up, Max? How are you?" Warren says opening his arms for a hug.

Max, feeling really good about everything that has happened so far today, actually hugs him back, but only for a moment before pulling away and holding out his flash drive. "Here's your flash, Warren. Thanks for letting me borrow it."

Warren smiles like an idiot from the hug as he takes the flash drive back. "No problem." Warren gestures to his car. "Check out my new wheels."

"That's awesome. Very old school. Hey, now that you have a car, I heard that there was a Planet of the Apes marathon playing in Newberg at the drive-in. I really think you should ask Brooke to go with you." Max says, being friendly, but getting ahead of Warren trying to ask her out.

"Oh, yeah I heard about that too. I was hoping that maybe you could come with me. We could go ape!" Warren asks still being hopeful that Max would agree to go with him.

"Sorry Warren, I've got a lot on my plate right now. But trust me, Brooke would really like it if you asked her to go instead of me." Max says leaning against the car next to Warren, trying to make him get the hint without coming out and saying it.

"Maybe...So did you get a chance to check out the movie booty on my flash drive?" Warren says, tactfully changing the subject before it got too awkward.

Max smirks at his attempt to save face in her turning him down. "Yeah, thanks. You had some cool shit on there."

Warren looked proud of that fact. "I consider myself a pop...cultural pirate connoisseur."

"Sounds a hell of a lot better than 'thief'." Max says teasingly.

"Ha ha. Make sure you watch 'Cannibal Holocaust'." Warren says with a sly smirk.

"Seen it." Max says shaking her head as she remembered the flash drive's contents. "But those emo-vampire movies? Really Warren?"

"Can't a sensitive high school boy love sensitive vampires too?" Warren asks jokingly.

"So you're sensitive..."

"Max Caulfield, right?" Max's attention was drawn to Nathan as he approaches, looking super pissed and glaring right at her. "You're one of the Jefferson's photo groupies?"

 _"Here we go."_  Max thinks as she prepares herself for what's coming. Warren tries to help by stepping forward between Max and Nathan, but Nathan pushes him back and gets right in Max's face. "I'm one of his students." Max admits, not backing down from Nathan's glare.

"Whatthefuckever. I know you like to take pictures, especially when you're hiding out in the bathrooms. You best tell me what you told the principal. Now." Nathan demands, looking like the lunatic rich kid he is. "Answer me, bitch!"

"What are you talking about? I didn't say a word to the principal." Max says truthfully since this time she took measures to avoid that particular confrontation. Hell, the only reason she left that torn photo in the bathroom in the first place was to ensure that he came here.

"I know you're new here, but don't even play stupid with me." Nathan says, getting angrier towards Max's act of ignorance.

"I'm not new, I've lived here for years before coming to Blackwell." Max points out to the spoiled rich kid, who was a psychiatrist's wet dream considering the mental instability of Nathan.

"Then you should know that the Prescott's own this shithole." Nathan says, trying to pressure Max with his family's reputation.

"Then you don't have to worry about me...worry about yourself." Max says, slipping in a subtle threat in her tone.

Nathan balls his hands into fists as his anger keeps building up. "Do not analyze me! I pay people for that. Worry about yourself, Max Caulfield." Nathan says, not even disguising the threat behind his tone.

"Take a step back, Nathan Prescott." Max says getting closer to Nathan, showing she wasn't afraid of him in the slightest. If Max truly wanted to, she could attempt to beat the shit out of Nathan, but Steve's warning about not using her rewind power was the only thing stopping her from doing it.

Nathan lets out a small incredulous chuckle. "Oh man, you're telling me what to do?"

Warren steps up to Nathan. "Get away from her, dude!" This was responded with a headbutt from Nathan that knocked Warren on his ass.

"Hey, dickless, leave him alone!" Max shouts turning Nathan away from Warren by force.

Nathan grabs Max by the throat and starts forcing her back. "Nobody tells me what to do. Not my parents, not the principal, or that whore in the bathroom!"

Max actually put on a smile, despite the hand grasping her throat."You're going to get what's coming to you, Nathan. I'm going to make sure you pay for what you did to Rachel Amber." Max says quietly, so only her and Nathan could hear it. The look of shock on Nathan's face was almost comical and Max took the opportunity to knee him in the groin and scratch his face as she pushes him off of her. The push also sent Max backwards and onto her ass just before the sound of squealing tires could be heard.

Max looks back to see that Chloe's truck had stopped mere inches from her. She uses the truck to help her to her feet and look in the windshield to see the blue-haired punk girl she came back to save. "Max?" Chloe asks in disbelief upon seeing her old friend.

"Chloe!" Max exclaims with more relief than she meant to put in her voice upon seeing her best friend alive again.

Nathan had regained his composure and glared at Max before seeing who was driving the old, beat up truck. "No way. You again?"

Warren gets up from the ground and jumps at Nathan, forcing them both to the ground. "Go, go! I got this!" Warren says right before Nathan gets the upper hand on him and uses it to get on top of Warren. Nathan starts punching him repeatedly for getting in his way.

"Get in, Max!" The passenger door to Chloe's truck opens and Chloe waves at Max.

Max hurries to comply as Nathan gets off of Warren, marching up to the truck. "Get your punk asses out of there now!" Nathan demands and kicks the door, but it only succeeding in closing it for Max. "Don't even try to run!" Nathan warns as he keeps kicking at the door. "Nobody messes with me!" Chloe floors it and gets them the hell out of there. "NOBODY!" Nathan yells with raised firsts, looking like a lunatic.

Max looks back just in time to see David Madeson and a police officer run up on Nathan and Warren.  _"Yes! You go get him, David!"_  Max thinks to herself, elated that David called the cops on Nathan. Though the Prescott's practically owned the cops in Arcadia Bay, there was no way Nathan was going to get away once the police start investigating what Max sent to David.

Once they were on the road and heading away from Blackwell, Max took the time to just look at Chloe. Seeing her alive and well, it was almost too much for Max at the moment. "Take a picture. It lasts longer, Max." Chloe says, looking a little pissed. It took a moment for Max to remember to breathe, and another to recognize that Chloe wasn't being literal. Max couldn't blame her for being mad at her, this is the first time they've met in years, at least fro, Chloe's perspective. And Max's too, now that she thought about it. It's been four years since Chloe's death by Nathan. Four years of pain and regret and now...now Max was with Chloe once again and it couldn't have made her happier, even Chloe being pissed at her couldn't bring her down.

Max eyes water as she chuckles at that, turning away to hide her expression. "Sorry, I am seriously glad to see you right now, more than you know. Thank you for rescuing me. Nathan is dangerous." Max took a moment to wipe her eyes and regain her composure before looking back to Chloe.

Chloe smiles at that. "You said it, sista. It's been that kind of day." Chloe looks at Max for a moment and sighs. "After five years you're still Max Caulfield. So what did that freak want with you?"

Max couldn't help but feel giddy over actually having a conversation with her best friend again. "Nothing after today, hopefully."

"You're friend really took a beatdown for you."

"Yeah, I owe Warren big time for that." Max says, trying really hard not to lose control of her composure.  _"Calm down, Max. There is an order to things, so far the plan has worked out but you could still mess it up if you don't let things happen like they did before. Keep it together, just for a little while longer then you can start making some actual changes."_  Max thinks to herself to keep her on point.

"You're not the only one in debt, and you're already causing trouble."

"You have no idea. It feels so weird to be back her after being away for so long." Max smirks, the words ringing more true than Chloe could know right now.

"So I guess Seattle sucked hard?"

"It did. It was cool but I felt lonely, out of my league." Max says honestly, before she frowns in regret. "It would've rocked if you were there though."

"I would think you'd fit right in with the art school hipsters." Chloe says indifferently.

Max couldn't help but snort at that with amusement. "Right. Have you looked in the mirror? You look like the cover of Hipster Girl dot com."

That got a small laugh out of Chloe. "At least you're still a smartass."

"Some things never change. That's why I'm here." Max says with a knowing smile.

"Please, girl. You came back for Blackwell Academy."

"Mostly." Max admits honestly. "It's one of the best photography schools in the country. But I also wanted to see you, too."

"Says the girl that couldn't be bothered to call or text me for five years while she was living it up in Seattle." Some anger crept back into Chloe's voice.

"Trust me, that's been one of the biggest regrets in my life." Max says sadly. Max had thought about that many times over the years. What would have happened to Chloe if Max had bothered to pick up the phone and get in touch with her? Would Chloe have become like she has? Alone and angry at the world and everyone in it? "I'm so sorry, Chloe. I really am. I wasn't being a good friend to you. But I want to change that now, if you'll give me the chance, please?"

"You've been at Blackwell for almost a month without letting me know, Max. How am I supposed to take that?" Chloe asks, clearly getting more agitated the more she thought about the situation.

Max sighs softly, a tear running down her cheek at the sight of Chloe being angry with her. "I swear I didn't mean to hurt you, Chloe. You have to believe me."

Chloe looks over at Max, seeing the tear, before looking back to the road, her anger abating. "Don't cry. How can I be mad at you if you're crying?"

Max laughs at that and wipes away the tear. Right now, Max was being overwhelmed with a lot of feelings and she didn't really know what to do with them right now. She pulls her messenger bag onto her lap and pulls out her camera, wanting to take a photo of Chloe, but realized it was busted from the fall she took in the parking lot. "Shit, are you cereal?" Max asks, now remembering that it was that incident that broke the camera the first time as well.

"Wow, haven't heard that one in a while." Chloe says with amusement.

"Some things change, others stay the same. And now my camera has officially taken a shit." Max says sadly as she puts her destroyed camera back in her messenger bag.

"My step-douche has a boatload of tool. Maybe you can fix it at my place." Chloe offers, though she seemed a little reluctant about it.

Max understood why Chloe was reluctant, but if everything went as planned then that should change by the end of today. "Unless he has very specific tiny tools, I don't see that happening."

"Nerd alert." Chloe says with a laugh. "My stepdad has a fully stocked garage. And he actually is a tiny tool." Chloe looks over at Max with a friendly smile that melted Max's heart. "Welcome home, Max."

* * *

Steve opened his eyes once he felt that the world wasn't spinning anymore and the nausea left him. "Well that sucked." He says holding his pounding head. He heard a meow and looked up to see his cat sitting on the step above him looking down at him, his tail flicking behind him. "Shut it, Blue. How was I supposed to know I'd trip the moment I got here?"

Blue, the name of Steve's spectral cat, lays down blinking slowly, his tail still flicking back and forth behind him. "Give me a minute, didn't think bringing someone with me would drain me like it did." Steve says, feeling like he just ran a marathon non-stop.

It took a minute, but Steve gets back to his feet. Blue sits up and grooms himself as Steve looks around, taking a moment to figure out where the hell he was. "Oh balls! Are you kidding me?" Steve shouts in anger. "I'm half way across the fucking planet! Oh man, I need to get to Arcadia Bay, like yesterday." Steve raises his hand to snap his fingers and stop time so he could get there quickly.

But, to his surprise, four figures in golden cloaks appear out of nowhere right in front of him and stopped him before he tried. "Uh..." Steve says hesitantly, not able to remember these guys the first time he was here. "Who the hell are you?"

_**"Turn back."** _

That freaked Steve out a bit. He heard the echoing words in his mind, but there was no voice that said it aloud. It was like he just understood them without them physically speaking to him. While most of him was put off by that, the logical part of his mind was demanding that he get more information from these guys before he shits his pants. "Why should I?"

_**"You are interfering with things you cannot possibly understand. Go back to your time."** _

Steve took a moment to observe them. He noticed that they were identical in every way. The same height, same width, the same golden cloak worn exactly the same as the others, and their cloaks fluttered in the wind in the exact same way. It was completely unnatural and it was starting to freak Steve out. "What am I interfering with? And who the hell are you guys?" Steve asks, stalling them and getting some more information at the same time.

 _ **"We are the Envoys of Fate."**_  They answer, and Steve noticed that it wasn't an echo, it was just the sound of four voices speaking at once.  _ **"Go back to your time."**_

"Considering my time doesn't exist anymore that might be a bit hard. Are you friends with that guy in the black coat? 'Cuz I gotta say, I'm digging the look. Intimidating, yet somehow stylish in the mystical kind of way." Steve says, taking his time and observing everything about these guys. "Now tell me, what am I interfering with?"

_**"Fate cannot be changed. To do so will spread chaos."** _

"A little chaos is good every once in a while. Are you talking about Max and Chloe? Because if you are, then I can't really help you."

 _ **"You cannot be allowed to interfere."**_  In unison the raise their right hands and shafts of brilliant white light comes out of their closed fists.

Those made Steve pause and blink slowly for a moment. "Envoys of Fate? More like really weird time Jedi. Got it. But I think we can come to an understanding on...HEY LOOK! A DISTRACTION!" Steve shouts pointing behind them as if something horrible was there.

Strangely, they all feel for it as they turned to look where Steve had pointed at. "Meep meep!" Steve shouts before his inner Road Runner by turning and hauling ass the other way with Blue in tow. Together they phased through the wall and fell to the ground outside of the Coliseum, continuing to run as fast as they could as they made a straight shot towards the airport. Taking a chance, Steve looks behind him and sees the four cloaked guys right on his tail, their swords gone as the passed right through everything just like he did. "CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP!" Steve shrieks forcing himself to run faster.

 _"I need a place where I can get the drop on these guys!"_  Steve thinks to himself while trying to remember a good place that would suit his needs.  _"The airport would be the best place. If I can get them separated I can probably take them on one on one. If they don't rip me to shreds with those...what are those things? They can't be lightsabers or George Lucas might have to sue somebody."_  Steve shakes his head to get back on track.  _"One problem at a time, Steve. Get away from them now, think about that other shit later."_

Steve and Blue managed to get to the airport after thirty minutes of constant running. It's amazing how much time you save when traveling when you don't have to worry about things like the buildings or people getting in your way. They go through a wall and into the baggage warehouse. He quickly uses his ghost-like ability to pass through objects to his advantage and hides himself and Blue inside one of the conveyer machines, using it as cover as he keeps an eye out for his odd attackers.

They too come through the wall and come to a stop as, together, they take a moment to look around from their spot. They bring those swords back into existence and start walking forward, spreading out from each other to cover more ground as they look for him. Steve took notice that when they passed through the machines and conveyer belts, their swords cut through them light a hot knife through butter. Steve looks at the cuts and sees that they are white hot as the sword leaves them.

 _"Not a hot knife, more like sun touched. Could that be it? Are those swords are like my windows, just containing the light of some star maybe? This is nuts, they're actually affecting things in the physical world with those things. That's gotta take a lot of power."_  That made Steve's eyebrows rise as the theory started to make a bit more sense to him.  _"If they're doing that, how do they know where exactly to look for that? Wait, that's a stupid question, if these guys are Envoys of Fate like they say they are, then finding that would be no problem. Space might be endlessly big, but if you had all the time in the world you could watch everything in the universe. Damn, I need to figure that one out, would be cool to have a friggin' lightsaber at my disposal."_  Steve thinks before continuing on, using the machines for cover to remain unseen.

The Envoys keep spreading out, their swords cutting through machine after machine with little care about what they're doing. The workers inside the facility were freaking out as the machines seemed to spontaneously combust, wrecking the place. Steve stops as one of them passes right by him, and through the wall leading back outside.  _"Now's my chance."_ Steve thinks, checking to see if the others could see him before running after that one.

Steve comes through the wall running and uses his momentum to kick the Envoy behind the knee, making it drop to the ground. It must have disrupted its concentration as the sword disperses from the its hand. Steve jumps on top of it and throws punches into where its head should be, connecting with something solid within. He put every bit of strength he had into his punches and didn't stop till the Envoy laid limply on the ground.

Glad it was over quickly, Steve gets up off the Envoy and dusts himself off. "That's what you get, fuckass! Thinking you can come and kill me? Fuck you! Only one allowed to kill me is me!" Steve says, the adrenaline making him feel unstoppable right now.

That is until Blue started growling at something behind him. Steve turns and, upon seeing the other three Envoys coming out of the wall behind him, shrieks like a scared animal, turns, and runs away. He runs down the length of the wall before making a hard right back inside the building, quickly ducking out of sight inside another machine. The three Envoys walk in and look around, but this time they stay together as they move through the area to avoid another one on one fight.  _"Come on you useless piece of shit, pull a plan out of your ass!"_  Steve scolds at himself internally.  _"Max is waiting for you and you have places to be!"_

Steve takes a quiet steadying breath trying to come up with a strategy.  _"Calm down. Take inventory of your skills, your surroundings, and everything you've seen from these guys."_  Steve thinks trying to keep his cool as he plays out scenarios in his head about how to deal with the Envoys.

Steve looks at the guys and narrows his eyes thoughtfully.  _"They got some serious mojo, but they aren't too bright. I've never got that distraction thing to work in my entire life. On a side note, I need to check that off my bucket list. So, these guys are simple minded."_  Steve smiles like a shark as a strategy comes to mind, however foolish it was.  _"I really hope this works."_  Steve runs out, instantly getting the attention of the Envoys, and making them chase after him once again as he passes through another wall to escape their line of sight.

The Envoys pass through the wall into an area that was still under construction, with plenty of scaffolding strewn all around the warehouse. As they do, they see a window in time with the words "Behind you!" written in sunlight. They all turn around, expecting to see Steve, but he jumps down from his hiding spot above and uses gravity to drive his elbows onto the Envoys to the right and the left's necks while Steve drops on the center Envoy's back causing all of them to fall to the floor.

Steve brings his elbow up and drives it hard onto the back of the center Envoy's neck, making him go limp beneath Steve after hearing a satisfying snap and pop. Quickly, Steve gets up and blocks the arm of one of the other Envoys trying to at stab him with its sword of star light. Steve gets some leverage on him and forces the sword back down and into its torso. The Envoy goes limp and the sword disperses as his body starts to turn to ash.

Pain unlike Steve had ever felt before flashed through him as he sees one of the swords sticking out of his left shoulder. There was a hiss and Steve's cat jumps at the last Envoy, biting its hand and making it withdraw the sword as he flung Blue away. Acting quickly and doing his best to ignore the pain, Steve spins around with his leg outstretched and sweeps the Envoy's legs out from under it, grabbing its sword arm as it falls and drives the sword through its chest to finish it off before he turns to ash as well.

Steve takes a minute to catch his breath and hold his wounded shoulder as he looks to his furry companion as he saunters up to him and the three piles of golden dust on the floor. "Thanks bud. But couldn't you have jumped in a little sooner? I mean, this sumbitch really hurts." Steve says gesturing to his shoulder. Blue's narrows its eyes at Steve and flicks his tail back and forth in annoyance. "Yeah yeah." Steve says waving his hand dismissively before getting to his feet and snapping his finger to disperse the window he placed earlier.

With his good arm he uses sunlight to write "Behind you!" in the air. This was Steve's first encounter with people in a similar situation as his, but he was glad to know that the window could also look into the immediate future. That was the only thing that saved his ass from those things. "Alright. Let's get going." Steve started to move but stopped once he heard Blue hissing at something. He turns and sees the first guy he knocked out walking through the wall before summoning a sword into each of its hands. And though Steve couldn't see the guy's face, he could practically feel the glare and murderous intent. "Oh...fuck me sideways." Steve groans before turning away and running again.

This time, however, the guy was limping on the leg that Steve had injured before, which gave Steve enough time to run through the airport and get onto a departing plane for the U.S.

Steve stands in the aisle, holding his shoulder and breathing heavily with no one on the plane batting an eye at him. Steve felt it as time started to slow towards a stop around him. "Oh why won't you just give up already?" Steve exclaims holding his hand out and using his power to try and focus on keeping time running normally, counteracting the Envoy's attempt. This was something that he had never attempted before, and the fact that he could do something he's never actively had to try before surprised the hell out of him.

As the plane got further and further away from the airport the pressure of the Envoy's power lessened until it was gone completely. Steve lets up on his focus and collapses into the seat right beside him, for the first time in a very long time feeling exhausted. "That was fuckin' nuts." Steve says through gritted teeth. He runs his thumb under his nose and feels the wetness of blood dripping from it. He looks at the blood on his fingers and sees that it is pitch black. "Is this ectoplasm? Duh, you're a ghost, idiot. Or at least ghost-related." Steve mummers to himself as he leans back and tries to relax. His head was still pounded heavily from using so much of his power so quickly along with that chase and the fight. "Been a while since I've hurt this badly."

Blue jumps onto Steve's lap and lies down without a care in the world. Steve absentmindedly pets the cat then looks at the time. "Whelp, I got about twelve hours to kill before we land in..." Steve looks at the screen of the person beside him and sees the destination. "Maine? MAINE! Are you fucking shitting me?" Steve exclaims in outrage. He groans and sobs miserably realizing that once he landed, he had one hell of a trek ahead of him.

* * *

Chloe pulls the truck into the driveway to her half white, half blue painted house. They get out and Chloe goes to the front door while Max looks at the house with a warm, nostalgic smile as all her memories of this place flooded through her. "Come on in, don't be shy." Chloe calls from the door as she unlocks it.

"Sorry, I'm just remembering. The house still looks so nice." Max says before walking up to the door.

"Home, shit, home." Chloe says with distaste before walking inside and running up the stairs to her room.

Max walks in and closes the door behind her before following Chloe up the stairs to her room. To Max, it had been four years since she was here last, upon seeing it though, it felt just like yesterday she and Chloe were here trying to figure out what happened to Rachel Amber. Of all the memories she kept through the years after Chloe's death, the strongest ones were of being in this room with Chloe.

"My room looks a bit different than the last time you saw it." Chloe says as she walks across her room to lie on her bed.

"Not as much as you think." Max mutters quietly before addressing Chloe normally. "It's cool. At least we can chill out in here for a bit." Max says looking around the room to all the posters and pictures and graffiti all over the walls.

"This isn't exactly my 'chill out zone'. My step-fuehrer makes sure of that." Chloe pulls a joint and her ashtray from beside her bed and places them on her chest. "Come in and close the door. Put on some music while I medicate." With that she lights the joint and takes a big hit.

Max looks around the room, taking a moment to remember where exactly everything was. She goes to the power strip and switches it on, giving power to the lights and Chloe's stereo, then goes to the box underneath Chloe's bed and opens it. She sees the picture of Rachel and Chloe together, and Max frowns sadly at it.  _"How am I going to explain what happened to Rachel? Chloe's in pain about her being missing, and when I tell her about it she is going to lose her mind."_  Max thinks, trying to figure out how to tell Chloe about Rachel. It was something that she still couldn't figure out, despite having days to prepare.

Chloe notices Max holding the photo and quickly scooches over on her bed to grab it from Max. "Hey, give me that!"

"Sorry! I wasn't trying to be nosy, it was just laying there." Max apologized and looks away, feeling a pang of jealousy. "She must've been a good friend."

While holding her head and looking at the picture, Chloe sighs sadly. "That's putting it mildly."

Max sits down on the bed beside Chloe, looking worriedly at her friend who was distraught about the thought of Rachel. "That's Rachel Amber. Her missing person posters are all over Blackwell."

"Yeah, I put them up. She was my angel. After my dad died and you moved, I felt abandoned." Chloe takes a shaky breath as she remembered. "She saved my life."

"I'm so sorry." Max says reaching her hand out to put on Chloe's but then thinking better of it. "She's your friend, no matter what. Don't be afraid." Max scolds herself before placing her hand on Chloe's. "I'm glad that Rachel was here for you. I really am."

Chloe turns her hand and holds Max's hand absentmindedly. "Rachel had my back. We were gonna kick the world's ass. You'd laugh at how different we were. She wanted to be a star."

"She looks like she could've been a model." Max points out, keeping Chloe's hand in hers.

"That was her plan...our plan...get the hell out of Bigfootville, and into Los Angeles." Chloe says sadly.

Max nods, already knowing all of this. "She disappeared six months ago, right?"

Chloe looks up at Max quizzically. "Yeah, how did you know about that?"

"People have been talking about her up at Blackwell. A lot of people knew her." Max says using the missing person posters to her advantage. But she hated that she had to lie to Chloe. Hopefully, soon that wouldn't be an issue anymore.

Chloe nods slightly, accepting that answer. "Yeah, she just left Arcadia. Without a word. Without...me." Chloe says glumly. "Before she left, she said she met somebody who changed her life...then poof." Chloe shakes her head in disgust and lets go of Max's hand after realizing where it was. "Like everybody in my life. My dad, you...and Rachel...Gone..." Chloe closes her eyes and takes a deep steadying breath. "Can you put on some music now?"

Max nods understandingly and stands, grabbing the CD out of the box and putting it in Chloe's stereo. The music starts and Chloe lies back down, putting the ashtray on her stomach and taking a hit from her joint, blowing out a cloud of smoke. "Anyway, you can find tools to fix your camera in the garage." Chloe says dismissively before taking another hit, just wanting to be alone for a minute.

"Chloe, I know this might be a stupid question, but are you okay?" Max asks with concern.

"Sure, I'm awesome." Chloe takes another hit. "I just want to blaze and be alone for a moment."

Max nods and walks out of Chloe's room. Once outside he leans against the door and closes her eyes. It killed Max to see Chloe in so much pain. Unfortunately there was nothing she could do about it right now. As things were now, Chloe would think Max was crazy, and that was the best assumption. Max takes a steadying breath then walks downstairs and into the garage.

Entering the garage, Max looks around thinking back to all those years ago when she first stepped into this garage after Chloe saved her from Nathan. Given all the evidence she found in here concerning Kate, Rachel, and the Prescotts, anyone would have thought that David Madeson looked guilty of being up to something. But after everything she went through, put David through, and how he still showed up to save her life when she had pretty much ruined his, she couldn't be any fonder of the man.  _"Despite him being an ass most of the time at least."_  Max thinks just before remembering the cameras currently in the house.

Max makes a big show of looking around the garage for the tools she "needed". After several minutes Max looks up on top of the washing machine and sees the tools. She looks on the ground and sees the piece of cardboard she'd need to grab the tools when they feel and pushes it under the table beside the washing machine. She then turns the machine on, using the vibration to knock the tools onto the floor under the table. Max pulls the cardboard out and grabs the tools before turning off the machine and walking back up to Chloe's room.

Chloe was still blazing it on her bed as Max entered her room again. "You found the tools? Sweet. You can sit at my desk and fix your camera."

Max sits down at Chloe's desk and actually puts an honest effort into fixing her camera, to no avail unfortunately. Max leans back in her chair and sighs in frustration after about 20 minutes of tinkering. Chloe gets up out of bed and walks over, putting her ashtray on the desk. "So?" Chloe asks, waiting to see the verdict.

"I think it shit the bed." Max says in agitation before pushing the camera away.

Chloe walks around to the other side of the desk and sees several photos on the desk next to the camera. "Are these your new photos?"

"Yeah, I just took them today." Max says looking at the butterfly picture with a small smile of anticipation.

"Let me see." Chloe says before picking up the picture of the butterfly and her eyes widen in realization. "Wait. I've seen this before." Chloe looks at Max and her face lights up as she connects the dots. "No way! When did you take this?" A big smile appears on Chloe that makes Max's heart skip a beat for a moment. "YOU took this photo, you brat!" Chloe says, absolutely elated about this revelation. "In the bathroom today. You set off the alarm! That's why Nathan raged after you." Chloe says putting the pieces together. "It totally makes sense. You hella saved my life."

"Yeah, I was there hiding in the corner." Max admits with a sheepish grin.

"Damn." Chloe says, impressed. "You're a ninja."

Max laughs quietly at that for a moment. "A ninja would have cut Nathan's head off. I just took a butterfly photo."

"That is so badass." Chloe says merrily.

Max was glad to see Chloe happy, just seeing her smile again made this all seem worthwhile. Well, almost. Max would only be happy after saving both the town and Chloe. "Oh yeah, I almost wet myself when I saw the gun."

"So, did you recognize me?" Chloe asks curiously.

"I wasn't sure." Max lies convincingly, again hating the fact she had to put up this act. But Max was only sure Chloe would believe her once they got to the lighthouse, so Max had to keep up the act.

"I know I look a lot different." Chloe admits graciously.

"I was scared, too. I couldn't see straight." Max admits embarrassingly.

Chloe nods at that. "I don't blame you, Max." Chloe paused for a moment before saying. "So you must have overhead our conversation."

Max looks away. "Yeah, I did."

"Now for the big question. Did you tell anybody?" Chloe asks seriously.

Max pulls out her phone and pulls up the video of Nathan with the gun and hands it to Chloe who played it. "Nathan had a fucking gun on you, I took out my phone when I saw he wasn't looking and caught that. Some hard proof that he had the gun. I sent that to David, the school's head of security."

"You sent this to my step-dick? WHY!" Chloe cries out in exasperation.

Max takes the phone back and puts it in her pocket. "Did you see David and that police officer that came up after we got the hell out of there? That's why. David has a reputation of blowing things out of proportion. So I used that to my advantage."

Chloe calmed down as Max explained and actually looked impressed. "Wow, you made him your puppet. That's actually pretty amazing." Chloe says with a laugh before she went back to being serious again. "But he would have told the principal too. Him and the cops are in the Prescott's' pocket, there's no way that any charge they put on Nathan will stick."

Max gives Chloe a knowing smile. "I don't know, Chloe. I have a feeling that Nathan is going to have a lot more trouble than just this to worry about soon. So we might not see Nathan for a very long time."

Chloe looks at Max curiously. "What the hell does that mean?"

Max came close to slipping there, but quickly reigned it in. "Don't worry about it for now. Let's see what happens with this first before we deal with anything else, okay?"

Chloe studies Max for a moment, really looking at her old friend like it was the first time seeing her before beaming at her. "You've changed, Max. And I gotta say I'm hella liking it."

"Well, thank you." Max says in delight.

Chloe stands there thinking for a moment before turning around and looking on the shelves below her stereo. She pulls out her dad's old Polaroid camera. "I know it was your birthday last month." Chloe says before standing up with her back to Max. She looks at the camera for a moment, having an internal struggle before she turns around to Max. "This was my real father's camera..." Chloe says holding the camera out to Max. "I want you to have it."

Max looks at the camera which she kept and still used in the future before coming back. It warmed her heart that Chloe would give it to her. "That's so cool that you remembered my birthday." Max says holding the camera. "But I can't take this." Max hands the camera back to Chloe.

Chloe pushes it into Max's hand and holds them around the camera. "Of course you can. My dad would be pissed if I never used it. And now I know it will be used awesomely." Chloe looks at the butterfly picture and picks it up off the desk. "And I'll snag this picture as a symbol of our reunion. Cool?"

"Yes, of course it's cool!" Max says sincerely. "Thank you. This camera is so sweet."

Chloe smiles then walks over to her stereo. "Now that we got that mushy shit out of the way, I feel like stage diving!" Chloe puts some harder music on. "Let's thrash this place!"

Max laughs at that. "You're crazy."

"Yep yep, I'm fucking insane in the brain!" Chloe says dancing over to Max and grabbing her by the arms as she dances to the music. "Let's dance! Shake that bony white ass!" Chloe exclaims grabbing her joint and jumping onto her bed to smoke and dance. "Or take my picture with your new camera!" Max laughs and looks through the camera, taking a picture of Chloe dancing, surrounded by her pot smoke. "This song fucking rules!" Chloe stops for a moment, looking at Max. "Can't dance, hippie? Come on!" Chloe says encouragingly. "Rawk out, girl!"

Max laughs again and starts dancing to the music like someone who doesn't know how to dance to the kind of music she's dancing to. "Yes!" Chloe exclaims. "Break it down, Max!"

They hear the door at the bottom of the stairs leading to the garage slam shut. "Chloe, are you up there?" David shouts from down the stairs.

Chloe chokes on her smoke for a moment before looking at Max in distress. "Yo, turn it off, turn it off!" Max quickly complies and turns off the music.

"How many times have I told you to stop blasting that punk shit?" David shouts up in frustration.

"Dude, the music's not even on!" Chloe shouts back, shaking her head in disgust and muttering. "Asshole."

"I'm coming up, we need to talk!" David shouts before they hear him climbing the stairs.

Chloe groans and quickly gets up, putting the joint out in her ashtray. "No fucking way! You need to hide. Now!" Chloe says to Max in desperation. "My stepdad will kill me if he finds you here!" Chloe exclaims as she tries fanning the smoke out the window before going to the door and holding it closed so Max has some time to hide.

The door rattles as David tries to open the door. "Chloe, what's going on? Open this door, please."

"Chill, I'm changing, is that okay?"

Max quickly goes to the closet, moving the lamp out of the way so she can open the door with no problem. She quickly gets inside and slides it shut, hiding her.

"Shit." Chloe says quietly, preparing herself for David before moving away from the door.

David barges into the room, looking around for anything amiss. "What's going on in here?"

"Jesus, I'm just trying on clothes." Chloe says before crossing her arms and looking away. "You're so friggin' paranoid."

"Yeah, combat will do that to you." Chloe rolls her eyes at that, obviously hearing it over and over again. She then goes to sit on her bed while David steps up to her desk. "One of my guns is missing." He says before looking back to Chloe. "Did you take it?"

Chloe shakes her head in disbelief. "Oh Gawd, I didn't take your stupid gun. You do know I believe in gun control."

"Wait, is that grass?" David says picking up Chloe's joint. "You've been toking up again in here!" David shouts incredulously.

Chloe gets off the bed, not backing down from David's unwanted attempt at parenting. "Oh yeah, guns, weed...You are trippin' balls."

David looks at Chloe, getting angry. "I'm sick of your disrespect! Tell me the truth, that's an order! Whose is it?"

Max takes a deep breath before sliding the closet door open and stepping back into the room, much to Chloe's chagrin. "I'm sorry...That was my joint." Max lies, this time convincingly too.

David looks at Max, his new target for his anger. "Well, well. I don't like strangers in my home. Especially dopers." David points the joint at Max like a finger. "So you're bringing drugs into my home." David starts walking up to get in Max's face. "How about if I call the police?" Chloe goes to stop him, but David puts his arm out to stop her. "That would screw up your spotless Blackwell record. You do seem to get around, Max. I'm sick of you losers dragging Chloe down."

Max takes this moment to try a little spin of improvisation on David. "I'm actually glad I ran into you Mr. Madeson."

That remark made David frown in confusion and temporarily halted his anger. "Excuse me?"

Max had to put some effort to stop herself from smiling. Despite not liking to lie to Chloe, David was another story, but she had to be careful or this would just blow up in her face. "When I was on campus earlier I saw some kids going up to the dorm's roof. I thought that door was supposed to be locked at all times?"

That caught David off guard. "You saw this? Are you sure?"

"I'm positive. I just don't want someone going up there and falling off on accident." Max says convincingly, thinking of Kate trying to go up there to kill herself. Max figured she might as well unload as many bullets as possible for that particular gun.

David takes a step back carefully studying Max. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

"I didn't know where you were and I couldn't find you. Plus I didn't know your number to call you." Max says, honestly not knowing where David was during the incident at school. And Max couldn't let him find out it was her that sent that text, at least not yet.

David's phone chimes with a text alert. He looks at Max and Chloe then sighs. "I've got to get going anyway, so I'll check that while I'm out." His eyes narrow and he steps back up to Max. "But this conversation is not over." David stares at her uncomfortably for a moment before walking to Chloe's door and pulling out his phone. "And no more smoking pot in this house, do you hear me? Not while I'm living here." David says before walking out of Chloe's room.

Chloe gives him the double finger as soon as the door closes before looking at Max, her eyes sparkling in amazement. "Dude, that was fucking awesome! Thanks for taking the heat. We totally smacked his punk ass down. He's no match for you and me now. That was an epic win."

Max smiles and chuckles softly. "Thanks, now he should be out of our hair for a bit."

"Is the roof door really unlocked? Or did you just make that shit up?" Chloe asks curiously.

"It's unlocked, I heard some people talking about it." Max lies again, really starting to hate that she has to lie to her friend about this stuff.

Chloe sits on her bed, smiling ear to ear. "Anyway, let's wait till step-nazi leaves then get out of here. There is one cool place we can hang in this hickhole." After a few minutes, they hear David slamming the door downstairs. Max and Chloe leave her room, go downstairs, and out to the truck. Their next stop, the lighthouse.

* * *

The sun was setting as the duo climbed the hill heading to the lighthouse overlooking Arcadia Bay. Max, exhausted from her day of stumbling through time, was falling behind Chloe who seemed to be full of life and energy once more. Max could practically taste the joy that Chloe was producing and it something Max still couldn't fully suppress despite the gravity of what she was about to tell Chloe. For Max, it was very nice to have her friend back once more and to see her so happy, even with everything going on. "Isn't this awesome sauce? Totally reminds me of when we were kids." Chloe looks back and sees Max trailing behind too much for her liking. "Come on, slowpoke!"

"Hold on! I'm coming!" Max yells with a laugh. Chloe keeps heading up as Max checks her cell phone for the time.  _"6:40, I've got five minutes until the snow fall happens. Now's the moment of truth, Max. You can do this."_  Max thinks to herself trying to quell the sudden rush of nervousness that was filling her. Now she could finally explain to Chloe why she had been tiptoeing around with some of the things she knew that she probably shouldn't have known and she felt a sickening feeling that Chloe may not believe her despite her previous experience. Though Max quickly put that thought to a stop. Chloe was Chloe and this was the moment that Chloe would start believing in Max and her power, she was sure of it.

Max follows Chloe up to the lighthouse, still fighting that internal struggle of if Chloe would believe her or not when she spots Chloe sitting on the bench overlooking the bay. Max pulls out William's instant camera and takes a picture of Chloe and the sunset.  _"If you want, take pictures of important times. If something were to happen, we could always use them to go back and fix any mistakes we made. Just do so sparingly. When you fuck with time, time tends to fuck with you right back."_  Steve had told her as they were planning all of this.

 _"I doubt I'll need to use this, but even if I don't it's a nice picture to have."_  Max thinks as she walks up and sits beside Chloe.

"Have a seat, Pete." Chloe says cheerfully watching the sun set. Max stayed quiet for a moment, trying to think of how to bring up that she was from the future. "Max, are you okay?"

Max looks out to the sun, trying to think of how to bring it up.  _"Might as well cannonball in since I can't think of any good way to bring it up casually."_  Max thinks before taking a breath to calm her nervousness. "Chloe, I need to talk to you about something. Something you probably won't believe until five minutes from now. Remember that at 6:45 it will begin to snow."

Chloe raises her eyebrow at that. "Uh, random, but okay, I'll bite. How do you know this?"

"I'm from the future, Chloe. On Friday there will be a giant tornado that will come and wipe out Arcadia Bay and everyone in it unless I do something to change it."

Chloe tilts her head to the side, looking puzzled and wondering if Max was just screwing with her. "Oregon gets about 5 tornadoes every 20 years, Max."

Turning to face Chloe fully, Max grabs her hands, holding them between hers looking at Chloe with a "no joke" expression and tone. "Chloe, please, listen to me. This isn't a guess. I've lived through it before. It all comes down to a choice, I either let Arcadia Bay get destroyed or I go back in time and let Nathan shoot you in the bathroom to save everyone in the town."

Chloe scoffs at that in disbelief, removing her hands from Max's. "You're high, right? You've got to be high. How could a tornado be connected to me?"

"It's the truth, Chloe. I made an impossible choice, and that choice has haunted me for four years. But I came back in time to try and save everybody, including you." Max saw that Chloe thought she was crazy and it hurt. "You have to believe me, please!" Max exclaims, tears streaming from her eyes. "I can't do this without you, I don't think I can go through that again. I refuse to believe that this is our destiny."

Chloe was about to respond, but Max's head started pounding furiously to the point that Max thought her head was about to split open. She closes her eyes against the pain, and when she opened them again the storm greeted her. "Oh God, not this again."

But something was off this time around. Max was standing near the ruined lighthouse looking out at the tornado. Chloe stood by the edge looking at it with her back to Max. Slowly, she turns to Max with a big grin etched on her face. But before Max could say or do anything a shaft of brilliant white light comes through Chloe's torso, right through her heart. Her mouth opens in a wordless scream and only smoke came out as her body starts to burn away, starting from the shaft of light and spreading out until nothing remained but a pile of smoldering ash.

Behind Chloe was a person in a golden cloak, the source of the shaft of light coming from its hand, like a sword. The person steps over the ash that was Chloe and made a bee line right for Max, holding the shaft of light up like he was about to slice through her. Max was frozen to the spot, unable to move, unable to speak, only whimper as the person brings down the shaft of light...onto a similar sword handled by Steve.

Steve parries the strike and slices the golden cloak in two. When the golden cloaked person dissolved to golden ash Steve turns to face Max, his clothes drenched and a big grin on his face. In a moment he goes from smiling to screaming in agony as golden light erupts from Steve, blinding Max. Steve explodes with deafening loudness and the force of the explosion threatened to rip her apart.

A bolt of lightning lights up the sky, cutting through the golden glow and Steve was gone, along with the piles of ash that were Chloe and her attacker. A few feet in front of Max stood a tall person in a black hooded trench coat, his coat tails billowing in the wind the storm kicked up. The darkness in the hooded figure's hood was so potent that she couldn't make out any features within. "Only life can defeat death." The hooded figure says with a deep resounding tone that could be heard over the storm even though he was talking normally.

The edges of Max's vision starts going black and started to encompass all of her field of view until all she could see was pitch black. The sounds of the storm vanished and Max felt as if she was alone, completely and utterly alone. "You can save them." A sweet girl's voice rings out in the darkness. "You can save everyone."

Max opens her eyes and she was back on the cliff, in the here and now with Chloe standing in front of her looking like she was in the middle of a freak out. Max wanted to make a smartass remark about joining the club, but that vision wasn't like anything she had seen outside of that nightmare hallucination during the storm the last time around. It left her feeling like something bad was going to happen between now and Friday, something even worse than the storm.

"Max!" Chloe practically shouts, finally breaking Max out of her trance-like state. "What the fuck is going on with you?"

"I...just saw a vision of the storm." Max explains, feeling cold in spite of the warm weather. "Chloe...I think I may have made things worse by coming back here."

Chloe was about to respond, but snow had started to fall. Chloe looks up and around, not believing her eyes. "What the hell is this? It's like eighty degrees...h-" Chloe stops herself and looks at her cell phone. 6:45 pm, right on time. "Holy shitballs." Chloe says looking at Max in bewilderment.

Max gets to her feet and looks around, her heart beating a million miles a minute in her chest. "The first time around, this is the day I discovered I had the power to travel through time. It took four years and a very...let's say odd friend to let me come back and try and fix this for the better." Max explains simply, trying not to overwhelm Chloe and failing spectacularly as Chloe stared at Max with her jaw hanging open.

Chloe looks at Max in disbelief. "Max, start from the beginning. Tell me everything."

Max wipes the cold sweat the vision had gave her away and takes a deep breath, trying to figure out how to tell Chloe about the coming days.


	5. Trust

**Chapter 5: Trust**

It was around 4 in the morning and Max was still up, sitting at her desk reading through police reports on her laptop, looking at the screen with great intensity for any and all information about Jefferson and Nathan or their potential arrests. Nathan had been arrested when he came to threaten Max the previous day in the parking lot, but was released on bail within an hour after he was taken in. Other than that, there has been no news about Jefferson, Nathan, or the Dark Room whatsoever even mentioned.

With a growl of frustration, Max slams the laptop closed, not wanting to spend another day having to worry about those two psychos and what they'd do to her and Chloe if they found out they were on to them. The last thing she wanted was another visit to the Dark Room. That would have probably driven Max out of her mind and pushed her over the edge. Hell, she was still traumatized about what Mark Jefferson put did to her the last time she lived through this week, she definitely didn't think she could handle going through it again.

A cat's meow from right behind her made Max jump up in fright, surprised by the sudden noise while she was so deep in thought in the quietness of her room. She turns to see Steve's cat sitting by the door watching her with his silver eyes, eyes that seemed to hold great intelligence and wisdom behind them. The sight of the cat only made Max scowl in annoyance at the creature. "That asshole." Max mutters quietly before speaking to the cat. "Yeah, I'm awake, tell him to come in." Max says turning her back to the door so she could bring her anger down on Steve with dramatic effect.

Max heard the cat meow from inside the hall, then there was a brief moment of silence before Steve spoke, sounding as if he was in the room with Max. "Before you start. Yeah, I know I'm late. But I ran into some trouble trying to get here. I hope that trouble hasn't found you, but that seems like it would be a miracle onto itself. Hey, would you look at this! Your room doesn't look half as depressing as your apartment did. That's a nice change of pace if I may say so myself!" Steve says, sounding upbeat and cheery.

"Where the hell have yo-" Max yells, at least she started to, she was about to rip Steve a new asshole, but as she turned to face him the words caught in her throat once she saw the state he was in.

He looked like he lost a fight with a blender with a flamethrower attachment. He had cuts all over him, burnt patches of skin and cloth, and a big hole through his left shoulder you could clearly see through. Max could also see that Steve was slightly transparent as well. "What the hell happened to you!" Max exclaims, rushing over to him and looking at his wound closely, the vision she had at the lighthouse coming back to take center stage in her worried mind.

"You don't know?" Steve asks puzzledly, looking off to the side for a thoughtful moment. "So they're only after me? Huh, that's interesting." Steve looks back to Max before telling her about the Envoys of Fate that attacked him in Rome and his escape back to the states on a airplane that was heading to Maine. "When I got off the plane there were three more waiting for me. I managed to hold them back and escape, but not before they got some good shots at me."

"I thought if I held time still I could escape them, but these bastards have the same abilities as us apparently. They were able to follow me even after I froze time, it was nuts. So I ran here as fast as I could, and they didn't give me a chance to catch my breath. Thank god that I don't feel physical exhaustion when doing physical work like the rest of you meatbags. Anyway, they were right on my tail right until I crossed into Arcadia Bay's border. After that though, they disappeared, just gone without any trace. I waited for a bit, made sure I wasn't being followed, then came here...Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?" Steve's eyes look up for a moment and he snorts in amusement. "Well, I mean an actual ghost."

Max was silent through it all, soaking up all the information Steve was giving her, especially of those Envoys of Fate. They sounded exactly like the one that killed Chloe in her vision. After a moment she finally speaks. "When I told Chloe everything today, I had a vision like I did the last time, only this one was way more terrifying." Max then explains about her vision, the Envoy of Fate, Steve exploding into golden light, that man in black, and the warnings she heard.

Considering Max told Steve that he was likely to die, he seemed to take it well. "Huh, interesting." Steve says as he looks to the side, looking deep in thought as he processed what he just heard. "Only life can defeat death, huh? I'll have to keep that in mind while we try and figure this out."

"You don't sound too freaked out, considering...well..." Max says unable to repeat it again.

"That Chloe and I are going to die? Yeah, I wouldn't bank on that if I were you." Steve says like it was all just a joke to him. "I thought fading from existence would do me in, but hey, here I am. Alive...in a sense...and well...though I currently don't look it." Steve admits looking at the shambled state he was in. "Seriously, I could be an extra in some b-rated zombie flick. Zombie ghost, now there's something that should chill you to the bones. But then again, Hollywood would probably fuck that idea up, too. Friggin' idiots."

"You're really not going to take this seriously?" Max asks, completely off put by Steve's devil may care attitude.

Steve waves that concern away like it wasn't a big deal."Like I said, I ended my existence, which was part of a vision I had a while ago. And here I am. My point is, don't look for literal meaning in visions of possible futures. At best they can be mistaken or taken out of context because of how you see it. Just keep an eye open for any golden cloaks and Chloe and I should be fine, trust me."

Max's mind was swarming with questions and concerns. And now that Steve said that the vision could be wrong or that Max was missing some bigger piece of the picture, she could only sit at her desk and look at Steve in wonder. "What the hell were you doing in Rome anyway?"

Steve looked dumbfounded at that one considering how freaked Max was about her vision. But then again, he felt good that Max got some peace from his experiences. "Really, Max? That's the first question you ask?"

"Oh shut up! I thought you said we were going to come back together. I'm just wondering why you showed up in Rome of all places." Max says nonchalantly.

Steve shakes his head and sits down on Max's couch, his cat jumping up beside him to lie down and nap. "First off, I didn't know that we would be separated. That's the first time I've ever jumped back through time with anyone, I thought since you were the anchor that I'd simply come back with you. But I showed up there because that's where my past self was, physically, at the moment we arrived. I had been looking through the Vatican through the day. I wanted to see what was all in there, you know, artifacts, secrets, shit like that. Pretty interesting stuff, but I'll tell you about that another time when time isn't our biggest enemy. After that excursion, I went to see the Colosseum, because, you know 'when in Rome' and all that hoopla."

Max says trying to wrap her mind around that, but she was still dealing with everything she told Chloe up at the lighthouse and everything that followed. The look on her face when her best friend didn't believe her hurt, but all of this is hard to believe even for Max, so she really couldn't blame Chloe for being skeptical. And now it seems that Fate's envoys wanted to keep the future that Max wanted from happening as well, though it was weird that she hasn't actually seen one except in her vision. "Why are these guys coming after you and not me?"

"That is an excellent question." Steve nods in a sage-like manner at Max's question, before snorting and ruining the "man who knows it all" motif. "We'll add that on to the pile of questions we need answers to, cuz I have no friggin' clue..or a shovel...or a clue that leads to a shovel."

"Don't go boasting my confidence any more, I don't think my fragile mind can take it." Max says with heavy sarcasm.

"Eat me. Why don't you hold time still and run across the friggin' country non-stop while you're at it? See how that works out for you and your ability to think clearly." Steve says nursing her injured shoulder.

Max scoffs at his suggestion. "Why would I do that when I have you to do that for me?"

Steve gives her a mock smile before rolling his eyes. "Alright, tell me everything you've done so far since you've gotten here."

Max takes a moment to gather her thoughts before telling Steve everything that happened. Saving Chloe again, possibly saving Kate from suicide, possibly changing Victoria, Nathan being caught with gun, hanging out with Chloe, and telling Chloe everything.

Steve was quiet through the explanation all the way till the end. "Please tell me you weren't dumb enough to actually send that text to David from your phone? Please tell me you have some common fucking sense, Max."

"Dumb? Excuse you?" Max asks, taking offense to that.

"Answer...the...question." Steve said, a ember of anger burning in his eyes.

Max glared right back, but after a minute she looked away and sighed. "Yeah, I sent it from my phone."

"You dumbass!" Steve exclaims putting his face into the palm of his hand. "Now we have to come up with a plausible defense of how you can possibly know what you know."

"What do you mean? The cops aren't going to come to me for questions." Max says, confused by Steve's anger. "Aren't they?"

"It depends on how they plan on charging Nathan." Steve says looking up at Max, looking anxious about this development. "If they make a play to adding the Dark Room events to the incident with bringing that gun to Blackwell to shoot Chloe, then your video is a piece of evidence that they'll have to pick apart to make sure the charges actually stick."

"That's assuming they try putting that in with the case. They're unrelated events." Max says defensively, trying to think of a work around.

"Normally it would, but if they arrest Nathan and search his room, they're going to find the pictures he took of Chloe when he drugged her. It could be possible that he tells them about the bathroom incident, and if he does, then the cops will have that video to link it. They got the video from David, which not only gave him evidence against Nathan, but the message also put the cops onto the case about the Dark Room in the first place. David will show them the text he got from you, which will give them your phone number, and then all they have to do is look at the phone numbers filed here at Blackwell to know that the message came from you. And I doubt that you could say you got those answers while time traveling without being sent to the nearest mental hospital to be shacked up next to Nathan Prescott until the electroshock therapy fries your brains."

That made Max's throat dry out in anxiety. "Holy shit...I didn't even think of that."

"No shit." Steve says with a heavy sigh. "We're going to have to remedy that ASAP. We've got some time, but not much. Considering that the cops will be going up against the Prescott's, they're going to be looking for solid evidence really quick. They can search the barn house as long as they have probable cause and if they have a judge that's ballsy enough to sign a search warrant on the richest and most powerful family in Arcadia Bay."

"How long do you think we have?" Max asks, her nervousness showing in the quietness of her voice.

Steve's eyes were looking past Max as he went through mental calculations of probability. "Best case scenario is tomorrow evening or the following day if they don't connect the dots, and that's if we're really, really, extremely lucky. Realistically though, I'd say you have till mid-day tomorrow. That gives us some time to get some things in order. First of which is..." Steve's attention went back to Max. "You didn't tell Chloe everything." Steve said with a knowing frown.

The rapid change in subject caught Max off guard. "How can you possibly know that?"

"You would have specifically mentioned about telling Chloe about Rachel's death and her ensuing freak out afterward. From everything you've told me about Chloe Price, there was absolutely no chance in blue monkey hell that wasn't going to be the case." Steve says, just getting his deductive reasoning into a nice stride. "You didn't bring it up, so you're hiding the truth from her until you can prove to her that Rachel got justice. Which explains why you were shifting at the police reports. Your frustration afterwards says that, so far, there hasn't been any developments about it. At least not publicly".

"How the hell do you do that?" Max yells in frustration. "You take one step into a room and suddenly you know every possible thing about everything inside that room. Do you have any idea how annoying that is?"

"People usually tell me to fuck off when I get started with that, if that gives you any indication." Steve says with a wicked grin. "Unfortunately, for other people at least, Sherlock Holmes was a hero of mine when I was a kid so I've made it my hobby to keep my deduction game on point. And as much as people feel that they're all special little snowflakes, never one thats exactly like another, the overlap of how they act and react is astonishing. Over 6 billion people on the planet, you'd think there would be more mystery to how people behave, but alas there usually isn't. People are unoriginal bastards, and once you get to know them you kind of know all of them."

"How'd you know about the police reports though? I was doing that before you walked in." Max asks curiously, clearly remembering that she had her laptop closed before he came in.

"I'm a master of time and space, do you actually think anyone can keep anything secret from me?" Steve asks with a air of mysticism before snorting in amusement. "That and I poked my head in before I sent Blue in to get your attention."

That made Max's eyes widen in disgust and anger. "I could have been undressed! You pig!"

Steve rolls his eyes and shakes his head with a small chuckle escaping him. "Yeah, you look about 12-15 years old there, Max. You're not exactly doing anything for me in that department. And even if you did, I don't have a libido, so its surprisingly easy to keep under control."

That made Max's anger flash through her once more. "You insufferable son of a bitch!"

The sound of a door swiftly being opened could be heard from in the hallway. "MAX, WOULD YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP! SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!" Victoria shouts angrily from across the hall before slamming her door.

Max blushed heavily from embarrassment and Steve was loving it, judging from his shit-eating grin. "And I don't have to worry about being loud, now who's in hell?" And to emphasize his point, Steve lets out a roaring laugh just to annoy the shit out of Max..

"You're an ass." Max says quietly, still feeling embarrassed by Victoria's outburst and she directed that anger while glaring daggers at Steve.

"And you're cruel, so I guess we're on even footing then." Steve says matter-of-factly, folding his good arm across his chest, looking down his nose at Max.

"Cruel? How am I cruel?" Max asks, her anger rearing up again, but keeping it quiet this time.

"You told Chloe everything except that the person she's currently obsessed with finding is dead and buried in one of her favorite hang out spots." Steve said this without any emotion, looking at Max with a seriousness she hadn't seen since he made the offer to bring them back to this week. "You may have hid the truth to help Chloe in some horribly short sighted, moronic way, but it's cruel, Max. The longer she thinks Rachel Amber is alive, the harder it will hit her when she finally finds out the truth. And if she doesn't hear it from you and she finds out that you knew everything and willingly withheld information from her, how do you think she'll respond?"

The thought has come to mind, but Max couldn't come up with a way to bring it up. "How...how can I tell her that, huh? How can I tell her that her best friend is dead and it's because of Nathan and Jefferson?"

"I didn't say it was going to be easy, but the longer you put it off the bigger the explosion will be." Steve says leaning back on the couch. "It's cruel keeping her in the dark, Max. And having her in the dark is only going to hinder us when we have to explain everything every five minutes to her. So when you get the chance, you have to rip that band-aid off quickly."

"Geez, yeah, I'll bring that up over breakfast. 'Your mom's cooking is just as good as I remember. Oh hey, Rachel is dead and her killers are out there waiting to kill you and me unless the cops arrest them first. Could you pass the butter?'" Max says in a feigned joyful tone. "Yeah, that'll go over well."

"I'm not here to coddle you, Max." Steve says with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "We're here to get a job done, and right now you're making it harder for the both of us. So get your shit together. We can't afford these kinds of mistakes in the future. Or do you want me to tell her? Oh hell, why not tell everyone?" Steve stands and looks around the room before clearing his throat. "ATTENTION EVERYONE! NATHAN PRESCOTT AND MARK JEFFERSON ARE SICK FUCKS WHO HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH TAKING BONDAGE PHOTOS WITH UNWILLING GIRLS AND ARE TRYING TO GET AWAY WITH THE MURDER OF RACHEL AMBER! THANK YOU AND HAVE A GREAT NIGHT!" Steve sits back down and looks at Max with a raised brow. "Think they got it?"

"Dude, why do you have to be such an ass all the damned time?" Max asks, looking at Steve with anger and disgust.

Steve, in answer, points to himself. "I'm a sociopath who hasn't had to worry about manners or hurting people's feelings in decades, and even before that I had little to no patience for other people's bullshit. If they can't think they get berated. And before you try to get high and mighty on me, I throw myself under the bus when I fuck up, too. I'm an equal opportunity asshole because the world needs people like me to call a moron a moron. I don't have the time or inclination to label them anything else." He explains before gesturing to Max. "So what's your excuse? Didn't want to make Chloe feel the pain? Well she's going to feel it one way or another, Max. Better from you than...well anyone but you."

Max thinks about that for a moment, though she hated the way he brought it up, she couldn't disagree completely with what he said. "I'll tell her in the morning. But now, I'd like to go to bed, it's been a wild day."

Steve nods and gets up to leave. "I'll have Blue stay here and keep an eye on you."

"'Blue'? Why would you name a gray cat Blue?" Max asks curiously as she walks to her bed and sits on it. Blue jumps off the couch, saunters over, rubbing against Max's shins before jumping on to the bed with her.

"Blue Gray is my favorite color. Plus I wasn't sure if he was a boy or girl when he came to me, so I wanted to give him a name that was gender neutral." Steve explains nonchalantly before nodding to Blue. "If any of those guys show up for you, he'll come get me."

"Says the man that looks like swiss cheese mixed with a big pile of bullshit. You think if these Envoys come back that you can fight them off? And you're leaving me with what in the ways of defense exactly? A watch cat? Really?" Max asks incredulously.

"He's my familiar, everybody's got a familiar." Steve raised an eyebrow at Max like this was common knowledge a preschooler should know. "Yours is a doe, so don't be judging me by my cat and I won't judge you by your doe, deal?"

Max remembered seeing that transparent doe before, but never really put the thought of what it really was. But like she said, she needed sleep, so she'd let that one slide for now. "So you're not going to stay here?"

"I don't need sleep like you do, meatsack." Steve says humorously. "Plus it gives me time to heal my wounds, get acquainted with the town, and check up on some things. I also imagine you're not going to be sleeping in those clothes so you'd probably don't want me to see you changing."

"I thought I didn't do anything for you?" Max says with a thin razor of heat in her voice.

Steve rolls his eyes at her. "I do have some decency, woman." He looks away for a moment, comically puzzled. "I don't know where though, it just fuckin' shows up from time to time. It's actually quite annoying."

That made Max laugh softly. "Yeah right, I bet you had a ball peeping on other women."

Steve gives Max a wolfish grin. "For a month after all this happened to me, yeah." Steve says gesturing at himself and that made Max groan in disgust. "What? I am a guy, you know. A guy that's invisible and can pass through walls. Don't be so naive. I might not exist, but I'm not dead."

Max could only blink at that last statement. "You know that makes absolutely no sense, right?"

Steve frowns and shrugs. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Oh, and if you have a bluetooth for your phone, make sure to bring it with you. We don't want everybody thinking your a crazy person talking to yourself. At least not anymore than they already do." Steve says teasingly before giving Max the peace sign. "Peace." He says before disappearing through Max's door.

* * *

 

The alarm goes off on Max's phone making loud beeping noises and vibrating on her end table. Max cracks open her eyes enough to see the phone and turn off the alarm. She looks down to see Blue sleeping peacefully on her chest. She stretches, barely feeling like she got any sleep. Her movements woke Blue up enough for him to crawl off of Max and onto the bed before falling back to sleep again. Max pets Blue for a minute, feeling sorry for the poor small animal for having to follow that giant pain in the ass all the time. She gets out of bed and sees a message written in the air near the opposite wall of her room reading

**"Max, I'm out in the courtyard.**

**Send Blue out when you're decent.**

**Cuz we both know when I see you it just kicks my libido into overdrive.**

**Insert sarcastic eye roll here."**

"Yeah, who even leaves a message like that? Seriously?" Max says sarcastically while rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She looks into the mirror and groans internally.  _"Whoa. Hello zombie-face."_  She thinks before going to the window and looks out to the courtyard below. Steve was sitting out there on the ground, facing the building, sitting Indian style with his eyes closed, a thin light of light surrounded him.

By the principals building she could see Warren poking his head out, looking around the courtyard as if looking for something or someone, before retreating from sight. Samuel, the weird janitor, was out there picking up some dead birds and placing them in a garbage bag so he could bury them later.  _"The birds are still dying. We have to figure this out or Arcadia Bay is going to be joining them."_  Max thinks as her phone chimes with a new text from Chloe.

**Chloe: u there mad max**

**Max: Like I said. Always for you :) :) :) :)**

**Chloe: NO EMOJI!**

**Max: :'(**

**Chloe: meet me at the diner in 40**

**Max: We'll be there.**

**Chloe: DO NOT be late or I'll know time is not on your side. Don't get high like in my room**

**Max: On our way. :)**

**Chloe: u r EVIL 40 minutes or else**

Max chuckles at her friend's texts, glad to have her back in her life once more, but what Steve said about telling Chloe about Rachel was gnawing at her.  _"I'm going to have to tell her today. That is not going to be a good conversation. Damn you, dickhead. Why do you have to be a prick and right at the same time?"_  Max thinks in frustration before remembering she was wasting time. _"Alright, time to get ready for today."_  She grabs her showering supplies and heads out her room.

As Max walks down the hall she saw Alyssa reading the notice board. Max picks up her pace so when the bathroom door on the opposite side of the hall opened and a roll of toilet paper was thrown, Max was there to catch it. Max tosses it over her shoulder, feeling like a badass, even if no one else saw it. She sees Trevor, one of Blackwell's resident skaters, writing a note on Dana's white board before waving back into the room and exiting the hall through the stairs. As he leaves Max peeks into Dana's room and sees her dancing on the bed while listening to music loudly.

As Max walks in, Dana's neighbor Stella pounds on the wall to get their attention. "Turn the goddamn music down, people sleeping!" She yells, her voice muffled through the wall.

Dana jumps off the bed and quickly turns off the music. "Hey, Dana." Max says rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Hey, Max." Dana says returning to her bed and sitting down. "So what was going on last night? The entire floor heard you yelling."

Max shuffles her feet and her face flushes in embarrassment. "I was just talking to a jerk, sorry if I bugged you."

Dana smiles knowingly. "Is this the jerk that you're crushing on?"

That made Max laugh heartily. "Not just no, fuck no! That guy is a insufferable know-it-all, I wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole unless it was to beat him with it."

"Ouch!" Dana says with a wince and laughs.

Max shudders in disgust just at the thought of having any kind of relationship with Steve. "Speaking of relationships, did I just see Trevor leave your room?" Max asks, though she already knew all about it.

"Yeah, he asked me to go to the Halloween shindig." Dana says, practically glowing with excitement.

Max smiles, happy for Dana. "That's awesome!"

Dana shrugs like it's no big deal, but the smile wouldn't leave her face. "At least we're showing are faces together in public. So you should absolutely come with us. Borrow one of my outfits and come as a cute couple with this crush of yours who may or may not be a 'jerk'." Dana says winking at Max teasingly.

Max rolls her eyes again. "Again, it's not him. But I think we could come." Max say before thinking to herself.  _"If Arcadia Bay is still around that is."_

"That's the spirit, Max!" Dana says encouragingly. "After this, you'll be ready for a rave."

Max chuckles at that. "Alright, I'll talk to you later, Dana." Max says before leaving and heading to the showers.

Kate stands at the middle sink, brushing her teeth as Max walks in. "Hey, Kate. How are you doing?"

Kate spits out the toothpaste before turning to Max with a smile. "Pretty good, I haven't slept that well in a while."

Max smiles back, truly happy that Kate was getting out of her glum mood. "I'm glad."

"Oh, hey, do you still have my copy of 'The October Country'?" Kate says gathering up her bathroom supplies.

"Yeah, need me to give it back?" Max asks, again, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, when you get a chance, that'd be great." Kate says before turning and giving Max a one armed hug, which she returned. "Catch ya later." Kate says before leaving the shower room.

 _"It's so good to see Kate smiling and looking hopeful again. I really think I may have avoided her suicide attempt this time around. Go Super Max!"_  Max says before stepping into the shower.

* * *

Once Max was back in her room she goes over to the end table with Kate's book and reaches for it, knocking over the glass of soda onto it. "Oh shit!" Max says completely forgetting about knocking that over again. "Well...once won't hurt, will it?" Max says before looking over to the gray cat still sleeping on her bed. "You won't tell on me, will you?"

Blue's ears twitch at he question, but doesn't move to show any indication of paying attention to her. Max quickly rewinds to just before she knocks the soda over. She moves the soda out of the way and grabs Kate's book, holding it up victoriously. "Alright! We don't need that to rain on Kate's day." Max says going over to her closet and changing into her doe shirt and jeans.

When she was dressed she turned to Blue who was sitting on her bed, sleepily looking at Max. "Alright, go get him. Just make sure the peeping tom doesn't go through any of the girl's rooms, okay?"

Blue stretches before he jumps off the bed and walks to the wall facing the courtyard, sticking his head through it, and meowing to get Steve's attention. He then comes back and walks out the door as Max opens it.

Max walks down to Kate's room, hearing violin music coming from inside. Max smiles at that and knocks on the door. "Kate?"

"It's open, Max." Kate says as the music stops.

Max walks in as Blue sits down outside Kate's door. Max sees Kate's room much differently than it was the last go around. It was clean, no clothes or drawings all over the floor. The blinds were open letting the sun in and the towel was gone from her mirror. Sitting on the couch, Kate was occupied putting her violin back in its case. "I missed hearing you play that in the mornings."

"I missed playing it." Kate says before putting the violin case on the floor next to her couch. Max hands over the book to Kate who takes it as she gets up and places it next to her book bag. "Thank you so much. I need this to take notes."

"Anytime, Kate." Max thinks about everything that's going on with Kate.  _"Keep it up, Kate. Soon you'll get justice for what Jefferson and Nathan did to you."_  Max thinks, before she heard a loud, anxious meow from behind her. She looks and sees Blue pacing back and forth just inside of Kate's door, his tail swiftly wagging worriedly behind him.  _"Impatient bastard."_

"Max, are you okay?" Kate asks looking to where Max is looking and not seeing anything.

"Sorry, I gotta run. Text or call me later, okay?" Max says, playing it off smoothly.

"Alright, I'll talk to you later!" Kate says before giving Max a hug.

Max returns it then walks out of Kate's room. She sees Steve standing by the bathroom door, looking into Dana's room. He looked exactly as he did when he showed up to her apartment in 2017, which only confused Max as she walked up to him. "How'd you go from being ripped to shreds to completely fine so fast?" Max asks curiously, but Steve either didn't hear her or was just ignoring her which only pissed Max off even more until she felt Blue's paw on her leg.

She looked down and saw the cat stretching up to her on his hind legs to get her attention before looking at Steve with concern. Curiously she gave Steve another look to see what was worrying the spirit cat. He was pale. Pale as...well a ghost. His eyes were wide, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing, and she noticed the high tension he held throughout his entire body. He was completely terrified at whatever he was looking at.

Max follows his gaze and sees he's staring at Juliet sitting on Dana's couch, which only confused her more. "What, do you got the hots for Juliet or something?" Max asks quietly, her curiosity making her wonder what he was thinking.

"Huh?" Steve says, snapping out of his trance and looking at Max as if she had just appeared out of nowhere. Given how much attention he was giving Juliet, she probably could pull that lie off if she felt like it. "Sorry...it's nothing...let's..." Steve haltingly as he his eyes drift back into Dana's room again. "Let's..." He says again before what little composure he had petered to nil and he just stared into the room, freaking out quietly.

Now Max was actually starting to worry. Steve shows up looking like he went twelve rounds with Freddie Kruger and had enough left in him to talk smack to her. But now here he was looking like he's seen a ghost and is about to piss his pants in fear. "Are you okay?"

The concern in Max's voice must have snapped him out of it again because he starts walking down the hall swiftly, moving as fast as he could without flat out running. "Yeah, we've got a busy day ahead of us. We better get a move on."

The sudden shift in gears left Max staring after him dumbstruck, then she rushes to keep up and once they were in the stairway, away from prying ears, she gets in front of him and stops his advance. "Whoa, Whoa, whoa...you've got to tell me what's going on with you here. Why was Juliet freaking you out so bad?"

Steve stopped and stared at Max, there was no anger there, no humor, no cockiness in his face. His posture was rigid and the tension throughout his body only made him look even more lost and afraid than before. "Please." Steve mutters, barely audible. "Just, not now."

The pain in his voice only made Max more curious.  _"How the hell can he go from total dick to me actually caring about him like that?"_  Max thinks before deciding not to push the subject right now. "Okay, but I think we need to talk about this later."

"Later...yeah..." Steve rubs his face and starts walking down the stairs again, trying to put a show of being his usual self, but failing hard. "Alright, so I walked around the town last night, got a lay of the land, followed everywhere you went yesterday. I gotta admit, seeing you tear into the queen bitch was surprisingly satisfying. You've no idea how many times I wanted to go off on bitches like her. And the way you dealt with Nathan and David was masterful work. Good job."

Max looks at Steve incredulously as she follows him. "You followed...wait, you were basically stalking me!" Max exclaims indignantly, feeling just as disgusted as she did when he told her he looked through her door the previous night.

"I needed to know everything, so I had to see it all. Knowledge is power, kid, never let anyone else tell you different." Steve says, like it was a mantra to him.

"Anything else? Besides making me feel violated that you watched every move I made?" Max says with a shudder.

"I followed David Madeson around, who was following Jefferson, quite good actually, he was definitely one hell of a scout in the military. So we followed Jefferson, and he went to the Prescott barn, the Dark Room, last night and David got it all on camera. He took that info to the police who used it and your text as evidence enough for a search warrant. They caught him in there with all the evidence that would point straight to Nathan Prescott and they carted his ass off to the station." Steve stops in front of the door leading outside and turns to Max, using the empty hallway to talk to Max without anything thinking she was talking to herself.

"They brought Nathan back in for questioning and managed to him to rat on Jefferson for a reduced prison sentence at a mental institution instead of the state penitentiary. So, hopefully, Jefferson's going to be shipped off to Portland to face serious jail time in some super max prison while Nathan is shacked up in the wacko basket. Right now they're waiting for a warrant to come search the school grounds for any further evidence. It shouldn't take them too long, especially with the mountain of evidence David managed to give them." Steve finishes as they come out the front entrance.

Max was actually a little impressed by all that Steve managed to achieve in so short a time. "Jesus, you really don't sleep do you?"

"Sleep is for the weak." Steve says with a note of longing in his tone. "God, I miss being weak sometimes."

Max laughs, but disguises it as a cough when they caught the attention of Taylor. "Don't do that, I don't have a bluetooth."

"Not my fault you can't stop flapping your jaw. So it might be wise to make the investment." Steve says teasingly. "Don't want people thinking you're crazy. Well, crazier I should say."

Max had to bite back a strongly worded retort as they approach Warren, he was sporting a black eye along with some other bruises from his beat down from Nathan. "Hey Warren, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, nothing...waiting. For a call?" Warren says, sounding nervous. "I mean, I already took the call. Anyway, I wanted to rap about that action yesterday."

"Rap about that action? Either someone's got it bad for you, Max, or our friend here is a grade A dork." Steve observes before standing beside Warren and putting his arm around him like an old buddy. "Warren, my man, I'm sorry, but as one dork to another, I've gotta warn you that I'm about eighty-five percent sure you're not gonna win the battle for the woman known as Max Caulfield. She likes the team she plays on and she's been nothing but a major pain in my ass to boot. I mean, you should have seen the way she was yelling her head off yesterday. And who was she yelling at? Well her imaginary friend who doesn't even exist." Steve looks Max right in the eye as he points to her and twirls his other hand's index finger around his ear mouthing the words "Coo coo".

Max had to fight hard, really, really hard to keep a smart comment from coming out and making Warren think she's crazy. It would only prove Steve right, and she'd be damned if she'd let that happen, especially if he was around to rub it in her face. "By the way, thank you for stepping in. You were pretty badass, Warren. I owe you."

Warren grins like a goof. "Oh yes, you do! I got knocked on my ass by that dick. I'm some personal superhero."

Steve shakes his head and walks away. "If only he realized he's standing at the bottom of the dark and hopeless pit known as the Friend-zone. Ouch." Steve says before walking a little ahead, leaving Max and Warren by themselves. "This is a bit painful to watch, sorry bud. I'll be over here when your done with your chew toy, Max."

Max ignores him, keeping her attention on Warren. "You're a real 'Everyday Hero'. You stood up to a bully and it was awesome."

"Even if you left me with said bully and ran off with that girl. She's pretty punk rock, how do you know her?" Warren asks curiously. You'd think that getting your ass kicked would make some people a little salty, but not Warren. He's usually always upbeat, especially when Max was around.

"An old friend." Max answers with a smile. "Chloe Price. We haven't seen each other in a while." Which was true in both frames of mind.

"I bet you were glad to see her blast up in that truck like a rock star. Which begs the question, why is Nathan Prescott getting psycho on you?" Warren asks curiously.

"He's dangerous, Warren. I don't want you to get involved. Nathan Prescott will get his karma soon." Max says, thinking of what Steve said about Nathan and Jefferson being arrested.

Warren frowns at that. "Alright, but about that Planet of the Apes marathon? Are you sure you don't want to go?"

Max frowns at that, she was really hoping that Warren would let his torch burn out, but that didn't seem likely, at least anytime soon anyway. "No, I don't think I can concentrate on going out to the movies right now. But trust me, Warren. Ask Brooke, she'd love to go with you."

"If you say so." Warren says, sounding a little glum. "Alright, Max. I'll talk to you later."

Max waves Warren a goodbye and walks up to Steve, wishing she could shove his ass to the ground. "You were being mean to Warren, and you talk about dealing with bitches." That got no response since Steve was staring off into space again, a weird look on his face. "Hey, asshat, you there?"

Steve shakes his head to clear it and looks to Max as if just noticing her. "Sorry, rough day." Together they start walking through the main campus to the waiting bus. They get on and take their seats as the bus begins its trip into town. Max put in her headphones, but didn't turn on the music, taking this chance to see if Steve would unknowingly tell her something.

Once the bus started moving and Max's headphones were in she could hear Steve sitting behind her humming a song. It was soft and sounded sad by his tone of it. He kept it up for several minutes while apparently looking through his notebook judging by the sound of turning pages. Once the song was over Steve was silent for the majority of the trip.

When they were nearing the Two Whales Diner, Steve finally broke his silence. "Thanks, Max."

Max pulls out an ear bud, pretending she was listening to music. "What was that?"

Steve wasn't buying it though. "Oh come on, there wasn't any music coming from your headphones. Give me some credit, Max. I'm not a moron like you." Max was about to say something when Steve waves his hand dismissively at her. "Oh don't be like that, I think that about everybody."

"Sometimes you act like one, Steve." Max says frostily before turning to him. "So what's up?"

Steve sighs heavily and leans back in his seat, crossing his arms. "I really don't want to bring it up, if that's alright."

"No, it's not, actually." Max says, which made Steve do a double take at her in surprise. "I'm putting a lot of trust in you here. I basically told you my life story and I know almost nothing about you except you're a dick and something really, really freaked you out. It's not fair to leave me in the dark when I've told you everything." Max says quietly so no one would notice her.

That gave Steve pause for a moment before he sighs heavily. "You're right. You're a pain in the ass, but I can't say you're wrong. I've never been good about talking about myself, even before all this time traveling started. After I stopped existing...well, I lost pretty much all my social skills...or as you put it, being a dick. Which, I won't deny either."

"So?" Max says, shuffling in her seat, trying not to sound too anxious. "What's going on with Juliet that made you freak out like that?"

Steve snorts in amusement, but he frowned sadly as he spoke. "I never told you my last name, did I? That bit of info would have made this a bit obvious." Steve takes a deep breath, steadying himself. "My full name is Steven Allen Watson, Juliet Watson is my little half-sister."

That made Max's eyes widen in shock and it took a lot of will not to make a scene about leaving out that little tidbit of info when they were talking about coming here. "I never knew Juliet had brothers or sisters."

"She doesn't...not anymore anyway. That I'm aware of anyway." Steve says sadly looking at the floor. "Seeing her, alive and well and here of all places...Well, I just wasn't expecting it. Like, at all. It caught me completely off guard, and I don't usually let that shit happen." Steve went silent after that.

"Come on, you've got to give me more than that." Max says, urging Steve to continue.

"It was in another timeline, one that has no bearing on the current reality." Steve says, slightly cold, turning away and looking out the window. "Talking about it will accomplish nothing. I've said my piece, just leave it at that."

Max really wished he would talk more about it, but she knew she wasn't going to get anywhere with it right now. "Alright, we'll leave it there for now."

"For now, yes. Good." Steve says absentmindedly as he stares out the window. The rest of the ride was in silence, except for the hummed song from Steve. But Max couldn't help thinking of the coincidence of him running into his sister or how bad it was messing with him.

* * *

 

The long, uncomfortably silent bus ride came to an end and Max and Steve got off the bus right outside the Two Whales Diner as three cop cars, their sirens blaring, rush past going in the opposite direction. Steve was still quiet as they walk up to the diner, which concerned Max since you normally couldn't get the guy shut the hell up. He kept quiet and just kept looking at the ground, lost in his own little world.

Max opens the door and she and Steve enter the diner just as her phone chimes with a new text from Chloe.

**Chloe: running late. grab a booth. mom will feed you.**

**Max: Someone better. I'll be lucky you make it by noon.**

Max puts her phone away and takes the lead as they walk down the diner to a booth out of the way so no one can overhear them and sits down, Steve opposite to Max, but sitting with his back to the wall and his legs dangling off the end of the booth's seat. He crossed his arms and just sat there quietly, staring off into space.

Joyce Madeson, in her Two Whales uniform with the blue hair clip keeping her hair in a ponytail, looks over and sees Max and starts grinning, glad to see the young woman again. She grabs a pot of coffee before walking over to Max's booth and pours her a cup. "And there she is, a lovely young woman. How are you doing, Max?"

"Hi, Joyce." Max says, happy to see Chloe's mother again, this time without the sadness of losing her only daughter. "It's so good to see you again."

"Glad to see me waitressing at the Two Whales after all these years?"

Max smiles at that. "At least you're still pretty."

"Nice save, kid. You're still smart." Joyce frowns at Max as she remembered something. "But not that smart." That got a snort out of Steve, but there was no smile or any other sign that he was listening. "Now you get busted for smoking pot. I heard the whole sordid story from David." Joyce sighs, shaking her head. "I'm sorry this was how you had to meet him. He's a good man, no matter what Chloe says."

Max sighs at that. "I know, Joyce. He might be a hard-ass, but I think his heart is in the right place, even if his head isn't. I'm sorry, it was very stupid. I don't even smoke, like, ever."

"It surprised me fierce, but then you told David of that security issue at the school. He was truly happy you told him about it, so I talked him into letting the subject go. Nobody's in trouble over a doobie. And I admire that you took the heat for Chloe. Like a great friend." Joyce says reassuringly. "I'm just hoping you could be a good influence in Chloe's life now."

"I will be. Promise." Max says adamantly, she was going to do her damnedest to keep that promise. "I know things were hard for you and Chloe. I really, really feel bad that I didn't call or write. But I promise, I won't leave Chloe again."

"Good, Max." Joyce says with a warm smile. "I hope you do stay. Maybe it will calm Chloe's temper. Ever since William passed, she's just been angry at just about everyone and everything."

Max gives a glance to Steve. "I know what you mean, been kinda dealing with something like that today."

"I'm not pissed, Max. Don't get smart. I'm the smart one." Steve says without looking over to her.

Max rolls her eyes at him.  _"Surprised I didn't have to drop a bomb on him to get him to notice this time."_  Max thinks to herself with amusement.

Joyce glances where Max was looking but thinks Max is just thinking of something instead of jabbing at someone she couldn't see. "Well don't you worry, Max. I'm sure everything will sort itself out. So, now let's get down to the nitty-gritty. What do you want to eat?"

Max's stomach audibly growls at the thought of Joyce's food which causes them both to laugh. "I've been dreaming about your bacon omelet."

"Now finish your coffee." Joyce says before walking away to put in the order.

Max takes a sip of her coffee and looks to Steve who was still just staring off into space, deciding to try and fish for some more details about him. "So..."

"No, Max." Steve said almost before Max could even say a word.

"Hey! You don't even know what I was going to ask. So cut the attitude, Steve." Max says, sounding greatly offended.

Steve sighs before turning to face Max, giving her his full attention. "Sorry. Go ahead. Ask away."

Max bites her lip for a moment, not thinking he'd actually bite at the line she cast. "So about Juliet..."

"No, Max." Steve says, exactly as he said it before while going back to his original position.

Max takes another sip of coffee. "Party pooper."

"Every party needs a pooper, that's why they invited me." Steve says in a sing-song voice which made Max snort, which got the attention of one of the truckers for a moment. She just waves it off like it was nothing and the trucker goes back to his breakfast and ignoring Max. "I told you to get a friggin' headset so you don't look crazy." Steve says with a knowing smirk.

"And look like an asshole who's too good to use their phone?" Max counters.

"Better to look like an asshole than a crazy person." Steve counters back. Max shakes her head and looks out the window. "You'd know all about being an asshole, wouldn't you?"

Steve didn't have a comeback for that, and just left the subject drop. After a minute of silence though, Steve speaks to Max. "I'm sorry I've been more of an ass than usual."

Max looked at Steve with wide-eyed surprise. "Holy shit, never thought I'd actually hear an apology out of you. Did it actually hurt? Cuz I'm not sure if it is physically painful for you or not." Max says with some humor.

"I just need some time. Time to get my thoughts in order." Steve says, again not giving in to Max's jabs at him.

Max looks back to him and sighs. "Wow, you really are a party pooper. Thought at least one of those would have ruffled your feathers, at least a little. Talk about not having any fun."

Steve turns to face Max, suddenly looking interested. "How come you never brought her up when we were going through everything about this week?"

"I dunno." Max said with a nonchalant shrug. "I just forgot about her."

Steve studies Max for a few moments before nodding his head in acceptance. "Is she hap-" Steve stops himself before shaking his head to clear it away and sighs heavily. "Do you know much about her?"

"Not really, we were friendly, but we never hung out." Max admits before thinking about it. "All I really know is she's got a bit of a temper and when her head is full of steam nothing can stop her. She's a reporter for the school newspaper. Her best friend is Dana and her boyfriend is a football player named Zach."

Steve laughed and he looked to the table with a warm smile. "Julie's always been a nosy brat. Glad some things never change." Steve says with nothing but absolute fondness.

"Julie?" Max asks with a held back laugh. "Don't let Juliet here you say that, she hates when people don't use her proper name."

"Yeah, that was the same for my timeline. The only one who could get away with it was me." Steve says his eyes looking into space as he was thinking about memories. "Alright." Steve says, coming back to reality, looking more like his former self. He stares at Max's coffee with predatory eyes of hunger. "Oh god, that looks so good...if I had saliva I'd probably be drooling." Steve says looking around like he just noticed his surroundings. "Oh god! I love these kinds of places! It's a coin flip if it's going to be either absolutely amazing or disgusting."

"This place is awesome, your ability to ignore your surroundings when your in thought is unbelievable." Max says before pulling her coffee towards her and covering it protectively. "And keep your drool away from my coffee."

Steve laughs at that. "Like I could steal it even if I wanted to." Steve says grabbing at Max's coffee, his hand passing through it like everything else. "Curses! Foiled again!"

"Order up!" The cook in the back shouts. Joyce picks up Max's plate. "Incoming!" Joyce calls to Max and walks over towards her. As she steps out from behind the counter she smiles at Max. "I can hear your stomach rumbling from here, Max. You'll love this."

Joyce puts the food down in front of Max and Max licks her lips, ready to dig in. "I'm drooling like a baby."

"Oh, so it's okay if you drool. I see...friggin' double standards, man." Steve says, though he couldn't take his eyes off Max's breakfast either.

Max gives Steve a hard stare before cutting into her breakfast. "Still can't believe you're a woman. When I look at pictures of Chloe..." Joyce says before looking up and seeing Chloe enter the diner. "Speak of the devil." Chloe high fives and fist bumps with Trevor as she passes him.

"If that's the devil, then hell's a joke." Steve says before he pauses for a thoughtful moment. "Wait a minute, I am in hell. And it is a joke." Steve then looks to Chloe with squinted eyes. "So I guess she could be the devil."

"Shut it." Max whispers to Steve before looking back to Chloe as she approaches.

"Mom and Max, together again." Chloe says lighting up at the sight of both of them.

"And Chloe, looking for a free meal. You've put your whole damn college fund on your tab." Joyce says while shaking her head.

"I'm going to treat Chloe this morning." Max says pulling out her wallet.

"No, you're not." Joyce says matter-of-factly. "This is my treat. To you, for coming back to rescue my daughter."

"Wow, a bullseye without even aiming." Steve says, sounding impressed and nodding respectfully to Joyce.

"Nobody needs to rescue me." Chloe says with a groan.

Steve looks over at Max with a look of mock worry as Chloe and Joyce continue to argue. "You did tell her everything, right? Like everything? Like we are literally her to rescue her?" Steve asks while Chloe and Joyce were arguing, which only got a glare back from Max. "Sheesh, can't even ask a question. I feel the love."

"I know she did. Max is good girl...woman. She's eighteen now." That comment got a snort from Steve, which got him another glare from Max.

"Too old to get lectures from you or Sergeant Pepper." Chloe says rolling her eyes.

"Call him David if you don't want to be lectured." Joyce shakes her head and walks past Chloe. "You only get one damn slice of bacon today."

"Ouch!" Steve says, putting his hand over his heart. "That poor girl...if only there was someone here who could eat a piece of bacon left out from its other brethren. This world is so cruel. WHY GOD WHY!" Steve says cranking up the dramatics in the end.

It took everything Max had not to chuckle at that.  _"Pain in the ass or not, at least this guy isn't boring."_  Max thought before looking back to Chloe. "You guys are still the same."

"Another reason to blow this town." Chloe says leaning against the booth before listening to the music playing. "What is this shit on the jukebox?" Chloe says before going over to the jukebox to put on some better music.

"You're sitting in Chloe's seat." Max says to Steve with a icy stare, silently telling Steve to move.

"I was here first." Steve protests, only getting a raised eyebrow from Max. "Ugh, fine." He says phasing through the back of the booth's seat to sit in the next one down from them.

Chloe comes back and jumps into the booth. "Now that that's out of the way. Let's talk future girl. Is your partner here?"

"Yeah, she's sitting right across from me." Max says with a joking smile.

"Ha ha, smartass. I'm talking about that ghost dude. Or were you making that part up?" Chloe asks, sounding slightly skeptical.

"Yeah, he's sitting right behind you." Max says before digging into her food once more.

Chloe looks over her shoulder, right at Steve, but couldn't see him. "Sup?" Steve asks, nodding his head in greeting.

"Are you fucking with me, or is there really someone there?" Chloe asks looking back at Max, unable to see him.

Max looks up and sees Steve's fingers behind Chloe giving her bunny ears which caused her to laugh. "He's giving you bunny ears."

Chloe waves her arms over her head, trying to get him to stop. "Back off, Casper."

"Ouch, scathing." Steve says sarcastically. "I've literally heard better from a five year old."

"So...is he hot?" Chloe asks curiously.

That got Steve to look at Max over Chloe's shoulder. "Yeah Max, am I hot?"

"He's a hideous chud." Max says without missing a beat.

Steve grabs at his chest. "Ow, my wittle heart is bwoken." Steve says with feigned sadness before letting out roaring laughter.

"You travel in time and you're ride along is ugly? Damn, that hella sucks." Chloe says before looking over her shoulder. "No offense."

"Not like anything could happen if I did take offense to that, plus the likelihood of me hooking up with anyone in my current position is about as likely as Max accepting Warren's constant pestering for a date." Steve says with another laugh.

Chloe looks back to Max. "So, let's talk about what's going on with you and your superpower."

Max finishes her omelet and pushes it aside. "There's a panda keychain, .86 cents, a pack of smokes with seven cigarettes, and a parking ticket made at 10:34 am."

That left Chloe confused for a moment. "What?"

"The items in your pocket. You want to test my powers, right?" Max clarifies with confidence.

Chloe pulls everything out of her pockets and shivers once she realized Max was right. "Holy shitballs." Chloe looks up at Max with a amazed smile. "I literally just got chills all over my neck."

"Chloe, I was being serious. This isn't my first time around this week." Max says, hoping Chloe would finally believe her.

But before Chloe could answer, Joyce comes walking over with Chloe's breakfast. "Take that crap off the table, Chloe."

Chloe rolls her eyes. "Sure, Mom." She does as she's told.

Joyce puts Chloe's food in front of her before looking at Max's finished breakfast. "How's the food, Max?"

"Better than I remembered!" Max says, sounding very happy.

"Very good save." Joyce says before walking back to the kitchen.

Chloe looks at her food and starts cutting into it. "Man, I'm hungry like the wolf." She says before chowing down.

"Clearly."

"Trucker drops his mug and Joyce chews him out. The stoner twins get into a fight and Chloe's mom cuts that shit off. The jukebox goes crazy when a cockroach crawls on it." Steve says popping his head up, holding it gingerly in his hand like he was dizzy.

"What?" Max asks raising an eyebrow before getting it. "I forgot about the second test...wait, how did you know about it?"

Steve gives her a look like she's crazy. "Hello, I have the same power as you. You forgot everything that happens, so I redid this and reminded you."

"I thought you told me not to use my power. Don't temp fate, remember?" Max asks, looking confused.

"I said you shouldn't use your power. And I told you I doubted your powers actually caused it, but we're not going to tempt fate." Steve corrects her. "I never said anything about me, I've been using my powers for years and nothings happened to cause any significant mishaps. Well, excluding the who destroyed city thing, but apparently we all have to deal with that crap when we get our powers."

"Lovers spat?" Chloe asks, trying not to snicker at her friend talking to an imaginary friend.

Max rolls her eyes at Chloe. "No, just calling his ass out for being a hypocrite." Max says glaring at Steve, who just stuck his tongue out at her in return. "You wanted more proof of our power, so he rewound to tell me the answer since he doesn't want me to use my power."

Chloe looked over her shoulder at Steve. "Don't be a dick to my friend."

"I know you are but what am I, HA HA!" Steve says in his impersonation of Pee Wee Herman. That got a snort from Max.

"What?" Chloe asks, thinking Steve said something bad.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it. But to humor Mr. Herman here. I'm going to predict the future." Max says trying to sound mysterious.

Chloe puts down her fork and knife and turns in her seat. "No way, I gotta see this. Hit me."

"A trucker drops his mug and Joyce rips him a new one. Justin and Trevor are fighting and Joyce breaks it up. And the jukebox goes crazy as a cockroach crawls on it." Max predicts and sits back.

"Pretty bizarro, Max. But let's see if everything happens like you said..." Chloe says looking around.

Joyce comes out from behind the counter and waves at them before walking past. The trucker drops his mug to the floor shattering it. "Opps!" The trucker says with a slur, clearly hungover.

"Did you break another cup? Really? No refill for you!" Joyce scolds the trucker before continuing on.

"Way to go, Mom!" Chloe calls out as she keeps watch.

"You're a dick!" Trevor yells at Justin before attempting to slap him.

"Don't slap me, bitch!"

Joyce walks up to them and gives them a glare. "Take your fight club outside!"

"He started it!" Trevor says in his defense.

"I'm finishing it." Joyce says before moving on.

Chloe looks at Max in amazement. "Trevor and Justin must be in love." She says before looking to see a cockroach crawl on the jukebox just as it tries to play three songs at once. "You predicted a cockroach on the jukebox?"

"Technically, I did...Just saying." Steve says his hand raising above the booth's seat before descending again.

"Only because you didn't let me, asshole." Max mutters under her breath.

Regardless of that Chloe bows to Max. "I pledge allegiance to Max and the power for which she stands."

"Now do you believe me?" Max ask exasperated.

"About your powers, yeah. This whole storm thing, I'm still not so sure about." Chloe says honestly.

"Oh my god, really?" Steve groans painfully before face palming himself.

Max reaches out and grabs Chloe's hand. "Chloe...I'm being 100% cereal right now." That got another painful groan from Steve. "Shut up!"

"Yeah yeah, shutting up." Steve says, ducking his head down below the booth again.

Chloe just shakes her head at all of this. "I just can't believe since you saved me a huge tornado is coming to Arcadia Bay."

"Believe me, Chloe. I promise you I am not messing around. This is really going to happen." Max says very seriously.

"Okay, you I understand, but what's Captain Dickweed's role in this?" Chloe says pointing his thumb at Steve.

Max groans a little at that. "Unfortunately, I wasn't able to come back and stay like this by myself. I'd only have a few minutes back here at most then I'd be flung back to the present. Steve said he's had years to practice his power, so he said he'd lend a hand."

"Oh come on, the guy that screwed up his own existence is going to help us with this? How do you know he's not just playing you?" Chloe asks incredulously.

"I am literally sitting right here." Steve says, sounding a little put off by Chloe's words.

That actually made Max laugh. "I think you pissed him off."

Steve's head phased through Chloe's chest to glare at Max. "Eat me." He says before withdrawing himself back to the other booth.

"What, did I hit a nerve?" Chloe asks mockingly over her shoulder, but Steve just sat their quietly. Chloe looks back to Max. "Alright, then all we have to do is train you up a bit so you don't need his punk ass."

"Again...sitting right here." Steve says again.

"Let's go to one of my secret lairs and fully test your power. You need a sidekick to guide you, not some grumpy asshat." Chloe says getting up.

Steve gets up as well and looks at Max with urgency. "Max...she's going to take you to the junkyard. You have to tell her about Rachel before the cops go and dig her up."

Max kept her seat, looking at the table, in the back of her mind she tried to come up with a way to tell Chloe about Rachel's death without setting her off, but nothing was coming to mind. Every scenario ended with Chloe flipping her shit. "Chloe...I..."

"Come on, Supergirl! Let's get goin'." Chloe says looking back at Max with a warm smile that made Max's heart skip a beat.

Steve groans as he sees the look on Max's face and he bends down to be level with Max. "Max...no, no, no, no, no...don't even think about not telling her. This is your last chance." The urgency in his voice growing higher and higher.

But Max couldn't do it. She hadn't seen her friend smiling like this in four years and she couldn't make her sad, not now. "We've got time, don't we?" Max asks Steve hoping he might have a way out of this mess.

Steve rubs his face and he stands to look at Chloe, his brain going a mile a minute. "We've got an hour...maybe...before the cops go to the junkyard to search it." He looks back at Max pleadingly. "Max, I am telling you. This is a no win situation. If you do not tell her the truth before she finds out, she is going to be seriously pissed at you for holding out on her. Do you have any idea how hard it will be to get her to trust you if you let this happen?"

Max knew he was right, but was still holding on to the hope that it could work out in her favor. "She's going to be seriously pissed no matter what. Can't I just let her be happy for now?"

Steve throws his arms up in angry surrender. "Fine...fine." Steve says, fuming with anger and follows after Chloe. "Just don't bitch at me when I say 'I told you so'."

Max sighs with relief and gets up, waving at Joyce and follows Chloe and Steve out the diner and into Chloe's truck. They pull out of the parking lot and head down the road to American Rust Junkyard.

* * *

 

Unfortunately for Max, Steve was wrong. The cops were already there, digging up spots all over the place. "What the hell is going on here?" Chloe asks in confused curiosity as she pulls up and parks the truck.

 _"Shit!"_  Max thinks, now sweating bullets and looking at Chloe from the corner of her eye.

Chloe and Max get out of the truck while Steve, who was sitting in the bed of the truck, hops down. "This isn't good, Max. If you want this whole withholding the truth from Chloe thing to go on, you need to get her the hell out of here." Steve warns as he looks around at all of the digging teams. "I'll go see if they found anything yet, you get yourself and Chloe the hell out of here." Steve says before rushing off through the yellow tape and the junk.

Max takes a deep, steadying breath and walks over to Chloe who was looking at what the cops were doing. "Hey, why don't we get out of here? We can't really hang out and test out my powers with all these cops, right?"

"Hold up, this is one of my favorite hang outs. I swear if step-douche thinks I'm hiding my stash out here I'm going to kill him." Chloe says in agitation.

"Chloe...We need to..." Max says, her heart pounding with fear.

"Hey, you can't be here!" A cop calls and runs over to them. "This is an active crime scene. Please leave, and yes, I mean you Chloe." The officer says giving Chloe a knowing look.

"Just curious about what's going on." Chloe says, still trying to see what they're digging up.

"Chloe..." Max says quietly.

"It's just a standard search. Nothing to..."

"WE FOUND HER!" A couple officers call out, while moving away and gagging. "Yeah, that's her."

"Her who?" Chloe asks, now starting to sound worried.

"Yeah, that's her alright. Poor Rachel Amber." They hear from another cop near the body.

Chloe's face went white as a sheet at the name they just said. "Rachel?" Chloe asks before ducking under the yellow tape and pushing past the cop.

"Hey, you can't go in there!" He yells and runs after her.

"CHLOE!" Max yells with tears streaming from her eyes before rushing after her.

Chloe gets to the hole, pushing several police officers out of the way. "Rachel!" She cries out after seeing her body. "OH GOD! RACHEL!" Chloe shouts breaking down into tears.

Max was right there in an instant, hugging her best friend as she broke down. Several of the cops stand there for a moment, feeling sorry for them before the officer in charge barks out. "Get them out of here, this is a crime scene, damn it!"

One of the officers gently help them to their feet and escort them away from the body. "I'm so sorry." They told them as they walked them back to the truck.

Chloe was a mess of tears at the loss of her other best friend. Max kept Chloe in her arms and cried with her. "I'm so so sorry, Chloe."

The officer let them lean against one of the cars. "Give me five minutes and I'll take you girls home." He says sadly. "I'm sorry for your loss." He says before walking away.

"No, please not Rachel. Max, please tell me that..." Chloe stops for a moment then backs away from Max. "Max..."

"Oh shit." Steve says knowing the jig was up.

"Did you know?" Chloe asks, trying hard to choke back sobs. "Please tell me you didn't know about...Please Max."

Max's mouth opened a couple of times before she could finally say it. "Yes." Max whispers

"You..." Chloe says, fury was now very evident in her voice and her eyes. "You..."

"Tell her I didn't want her to find out because the last thing we need is for her to be emotional." Steve says urgently to Max.

"What?" Max asks looking over at Steve.

"Tell her.. She'll blame me. I'm the Captain Dickweed, remember?" Steve says desperately.

Max couldn't believe it. He was willing to take this for her. "I...I can't do that."

"If you tell her it was you willfully not telling her about this it'll be harder to save her and the town. Now tell her it was my idea!"

"What the fuck are you talking about, Max?" Chloe asks with an edge to her voice, her hands balled into fists.

Max looks back at Chloe, more tears coming from her eyes. "He wanted to take the blame for me. But I can't...this is my fuck up."

Steve threw his hands up again. "Are you fucking serious right now? Do I have a face that just says don't listen to me?" Steve shouts to the sky in agitation.

"Yeah...you did fuck up, Max." Chloe points to the road. "Get the fuck out of here before I beat the shit out of you."

"Chloe..."

"Now Max...just go. And never show your face around me again, 'cause I don't know what I'll do to you." Chloe warns walking off, around the yellow tape to the train tracks.

Max's heart felt like it just went through a shredder. "Chloe..." Max says as fresh tears flow from her eyes.

"Blue, you stay with Max, if anything shows up for her, you come get me immediately. Max...I'll make sure she stays alive, now get back to Blackwell. If they're here, then they're gonna go to the school for witnesses." Steve says jogging after Chloe. "And you better have a believable story to tell them about that text!"

Blue rubs against Max's leg and sits against her. She just slides along the side of the cop's car, hugging her knees and crying. Because of her she probably just lost her best friend, again.


	6. Life is Complicated

**Chapter 6: Life is Complicated**

The police cruiser pulls up to Blackwell Academy, bringing Max back from the junkyard. The courtyard in front of the school was crawling with police along with the students and staff. The press were trying, and failing, to get through the police barricades put in place to keep people out, hoping to get the scoop of the new scandal that rose up with the arrests of Nathan Prescott and Mark Jefferson.

The officer turns off the engine and looks back to Max in the review mirror, looking concerned for the young woman. "Say the word and I'll make sure these vultures don't get near you."

Max sat in the back with tears still streaming from her eyes about what happened at the junkyard, absentmindedly petting Blue who was sitting on her lap trying to make her feel better with his company. "I don't really feel like talking to anyone right now." Max says quietly with a hoarse voice from all the crying, feeling more and more like her future self when Steve had found her. A failure, full of regret and a yearning to make things right, but not sure as to how to do it.

The cop nods in understanding and steps out of the car. Some reporters start flocking over to the car but the cop shouts at them to stay away as he opens the back door for Max. Blue jumps out right before Max gets out and the press were all over her, trying to put a microphone up to her face. Max said nothing to them even when they were trying to force questions onto her, she was thankful for the cop's presence that shielded her as they make their way through the police barricade and up through the courtyard.

_"Did I just screw this up? Again?"_  Max thinks as she and Blue walk up to the courtyard.  _"I'm so sorry Chloe."_  The look of disgust and anger that Chloe gave Max...it tore her apart. Every thought of what she could possibly say or do to try and fix this fucked up situation didn't end up playing out too well in her head. She had no idea what to do and it was killing her inside.

Several police officers come walking out the the school's entrance carrying boxes, presumably filled with Mark Jefferson's things from his classroom. Max looks over towards the dorms and sees the same thing, but, again presumably, with Nathan's stuff from his room. Max felt a tap on her shoulder and she turns to see Warren smiling at her. "Crazy day, am I right?" It took a moment, but Warren noticed Max's tears and the smile falters to a look of concern. "Hey, are you okay?"

Max hurriedly wipes away her tears, but she couldn't muster the energy to put on a facade for anyone right now. "Just had a really big fight with a friend. It's nothing for you to worry about."

"Max, you've been acting real weird since yesterday." Warren says with concern. "You've been blowing me off a lot and it's really worrying me. I'm your friend. You can talk to me."

Max was surprised that Warren picked up on that, but she couldn't deny he was right. Ever since she came back to this time her sole focus has been on Chloe and trying to save everybody. Sure she talked to Dana and Victoria a little, but that was more to get back into the groove of living in this time again. And if Max was being honest with herself, she really needed a friend right now, even if she had to lie a little to make sure Warren didn't think she was crazy.

Looking around to make sure there were no cops within earshot, she looks to Warren once again. "You remember that friend I told you about this morning? Chloe Price? Well, she was really close with that girl that went missing."

"Rachel Amber? Yeah, Chloe was the one putting up all those missing person posters everywhere, now that I think about it." Warren says, crossing his arms and listening intently.

"Yeah, we were at the junkyard this morning when they found her body. Chloe got really upset and..." This was where Max had to come up with a lie, something believable for Warren to get the gist of what happened without telling him the real reason Chloe blew up on her. "I said something really insensitive about it, and Chloe got really angry with me."

"Oh..." Warren says, blinking slowly as he thought for a moment. "How bad was it?"

Fresh tears started flowing from Max's eyes. "Bad enough that she threatened to kick the shit out of me if she ever saw me again."

Warren frowns and nods in understanding. "I see. I'm sorry, Max. Maybe there's a chance she'll forgive you." Warren says, trying to be optimistic.

Honestly, Max didn't know if Chloe would forgive her, or that she even should. They had just reunited yesterday, and things were really tense between them even then. Now that the cat was out of the bag about Rachel's death, she didn't even think she deserved Chloe's forgiveness. "I don't know what to do, Warren. I can't lose her again." Max says, her voice breaking while she spoke.

"All you can do is try, Max. If you can't stand to be without her, then you have to tell her that, make her understand how important she is to you." Warren says, sounding profoundly wise beyond his years.

Max looks to the ground, thinking about Warren's words. Blue looks up at her and meows, and somehow Max knew the cat was agreeing with Warren. That did little for Max, but it was a little enough to make Max feel just the tiniest bit better with a small sliver of optimism. She wipes her tears away again and nods before pulling out her cellphone. "You're right. I'm going to go find her."

Warren puts a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "I wouldn't go just yet, though. The police have been interviewing everyone on campus about Mr. Jefferson and Nathan. They're going to want to talk to you as well."

"Me? Why?" Max asks, a little fear creeping into her voice.

"I don't know, but they've been looking for you specifically. I don't think it's about anything bad, but I think you should talk to them before you go anywhere." Warren warns in a low voice, trying to not be overheard by anyone.

Now Max was starting to get nervous.  _"Damn it! Could it be about that text I sent David? Okay Max, you have to pull a believable story out of your ass before it's too late."_  Max thinks to herself as Kate walks up to them.

"Hey, Warren, Max...oh, are you okay?" Kate says seeing the tear stains on Max's cheeks.

Max wipes her face to get rid of any trace of her crying. "Sorry...it's been a rough day. What's going on?"

"You heard that Mr. Jefferson and Nathan were arrested last night, right? Now the cops are talking to all the students and teachers about what happened." Kate explains looking around at the full courtyard. "They've been calling students in to interview them, but I don't think that anyone knows anything about it."

"Miss Marsh?" A officer in a cheap suit asks Kate with his partner standing beside him.

"Yes." Kate says, suddenly looking nervous.

"I'm detective Trudeau, this is my partner detective Morris." The police detective introduces while also gesturing to his partner. "Ma'am, you've been identified as a person of interest with this case. If you would, I'd like to ask you a few questions about your involvement with Mark Jefferson and Nathan Prescott."

"What's this about?" Warren asks, stepping in between Kate and Max and the detectives

The officer puts his hands up in a non-threateningly gesture. "Relax, kid. Miss Marsh isn't in any kind of trouble, but some evidence has come to light that needs some explanation. I can't go into detail ab out it right this moment, but I assure you that Miss Marsh is not a suspect in this investigation."

Then it clicked, Kate's portfolio inside the Dark Room.  _"Oh god...If they show Kate those photos...what will she do?"_  Max thinks, remembering Kate's suicide attempt from the previous time.

"Wait, are you Max Caulfield." Detective Morris asks flipping through a tiny notebook he had in his pocket.

"Yes." Max answers quietly with a mix nervousness while her brain went into overdrive trying to figure out a believable story.

Trudeau smiles and pats Max on her shoulder. "We've been looking for you all morning, Miss Caulfield. We need to ask you some routine questions. I promise that you are not a suspect in this investigation either. We just need to get some answers about some evidence that was brought to our attention."

Max really didn't want to waste time talking to the police, but she couldn't think of a way out of it. She sighs in surrender before nodding. "Alright." The police detectives take her and Kate inside to the classrooms they were using for questioning as rain clouds start to gather in the distance.

* * *

"Wow, what a beautiful landscape, huh?" Steve asks sarcastically as he looks down from the top of a rocky cliff overlooking the large mountainous area that was mostly barren of any sign life, though there was some green fighting to occupy to mostly empty space in the further distance. "Why don't we go somewhere cool next, like...I dunno, just spit balling here...literally anywhere else?"

Chloe was just staring at the ruined landscape, a half drunk bottle of rum in her hand, tears still flowing from her anger filled eyes. The sky was growing darker as the rain clouds crept closer, picking up with the wind. Chloe walks towards the edge of the cliff, scaring the shit out of Steve for thinking she may jump, before she sat down and dangled her legs over the edge.

"I'll go with Chloe, I said. I'll make sure she stays alive, I said." Steve says mockingly to himself, with a hint of relief that Chloe didn't attempt suicide. He follows Chloe's lead by sitting down next to her and shakes his head at his own idiocy. "Yeah, real friggin' genius thinking there. Go with the person that CAN'T EVEN SEE OR HEAR YOU!" Steve shouts at the top of his lungs, just to prove what a idiot he was to himself since Chloe showed no sign of knowing that he was even there. Hell, the area would have been perfect for an echo, but nothing rang as he screamed, another jab at himself that he has no influence in the physical world. "God, with thinking like that, it's a wonder you're not out of this hellish existence already. Fucking idiot."

He really didn't know why he decided to follow after Chloe when she stormed off at the junkyard. If it was his gut trying to tell him to go with her, he needed to find out what his subconscious mind picked up on that his conscious mind couldn't. Unfortunately, that wasn't really a likely possibility considering he couldn't interact with anyone beside Max. But Steve put that aside for now and observed his surroundings trying to get a feel for the place.

The landscape was naturally shaped, so what ever was here wasn't man made, with the exception for the occasional path that was almost indistinguishable, but upon closer inspection could be seen. There were little spots across the landscape, but what they could be, Steve couldn't guess right then. But when he looked to the right and left of where he and Chloe were sitting, he saw two old viewfinders that would overlook the area.

"A park of some kind, maybe?" Steve asks before looking to Chloe curiously. "Why the hell would you come here of all places?" Steve asks looking around, hoping to divine some answer to a puzzle he didn't have all the pieces for.

Light rain drops started falling down, prompting Chloe to look up at the sky. The anger in her eyes was magnified with the glare she was giving the rain clouds, as if asking the universe if it really was out to get her. After that moment, she got up and started walkind down the path to her left, he ghostly stalker following after her until they arrived at a mostly intact pavillion.

The roof in some spots was caved in, but it was enough to shelter Chloe from the rain as it started picking up again. She sat down on one of the broken picnic tables and looked out at the barren landscape and the rain. "I can't believe you're really gone, Rachel." Chloe says as more tears stream down her face as she takes another long drink from the bottle then lays down on the bench seat.

Steve could see this place had sentimental meaning to Chloe, and seeing how she was reacting to the nostalgia he gathered this was either a hang out spot or somewhere important for Rachel Amber and herself. "Still..." Steve says looking around, not seeing anything that was giving him a clue. "Why come here of all places?" Steve asks, his curiosity only growing about what the hell this hike was about. Clearly it had to involve Rachel, but he didn't know how or why. And since he couldn't talk to her, he couldn't just up and ask her about it...or could he?

Looking at Chloe, Steve saw her finally look a little peaceful after a long day of rage and inebriation, her breathing that of someone sleeping. He saw this opportunity to gather more intel as he sensed that Chloe started dreaming of a memory and wondered if he could jump into it like he did with Max's back in 2017.

Now you're probably wondering about how dream walking is tied to the ability to manipulate time. There's no real science to it, just a metaphysical gap between the two that only people who could experience it could really explain. The truth is that everyone can time travel, you just do it in your dreams. When you dream of a memory, you're opening a door to the past. So if you had the ability to manipulate time and had enough experience with your ability it is actually possible to enter into someone's dream.

Though Steve didn't know if Chloe would be able to see or hear him, like in the physical world, it was a chance to gather more information from her. Maybe he could glean some insight that would make saving her and Arcadia Bay possible without having to wipe anyone out of existence like he did to himself. But there was only one way to be sure. So Steve closed his eyes and extended his senses out, feeling the pull from Chloe's dream and letting himself fall into it.

* * *

Chloe stood in the American Rust junkyard during the late afternoon. She looks towards the train tracks and sees her younger self, before she dyed her hair blue, along with Rachel walking into the junkyard. "You have fun, Chloe. I'm gonna go sit down." Rachel says dismissively, a little drunk from the bottle of wine in her.

Rachel walks towards the Chloe having the dream and sits on a crate beside some junked cars hardly five feet from her. The younger Chloe walks up to her, looking worriedly at her new friend. "I've heard that actors were moody, but wow Rachel."

Rachel shakes here head in anger and looks at the younger Chloe. "I'm not moody. I just need some space. Is that alright with you?" Rachel says a little standoffish.

"Okay...Actually, no." The younger Chloe says, feeling put off by Rachel's attitude. "I thought we were having a great day together. Why are you acting like this all of the sudden?"

"I'm not acting like anything. I just want to be left alone right now." Rachel says, clearly upset as she looks back to the ground in thought.

"No, I don't understand, you can't just turn on me for no reason." The younger Chloe says wanting to know what was wrong with her.

That made Rachel's head snap back up to the younger Chloe. "I'm sorry, turn on you? I guess I forgot...it's always about how you feel, isn't it?" Rachel says getting to her feet and turning on the younger Chloe. "Sad Chloe's fucking sad again. Maybe you should give a shit about other people for once."

That made the younger Chloe angry and hurt. "Are you serious right now?"

"Fuck!" Rachel yells throwing the bottle at a barrel, shattering it.

The younger Chloe wasn't ready for that and backs away as Rachel sits back on the crate, putting her head in her hands. The younger Chloe starts looking around until she found a baseball bat. She picks it up and holds it in her hands before looking back to Rachel. "Here." She says walks over and hands the bat out to Rachel. "If you really want to smash something. This should do the trick."

Rachel looks over and sees the bat. She stands up and walks over to Chloe and takes the bat. "I asked you to leave me alone." She says coldly before throwing the bat away.

"Are you kidding me?" The younger Chloe asks in exasperation. "I know you're the school princess and all, with the DA daddy and perfect grades and all the perfect little Victoria Chases kissing your perfect ass, but seriously...fuck you." The younger Chloe rants, her anger getting the better of her.

"Great. I'm leaving." Rachel turns and starts walking away. "See you around, Chloe."

The Chloe quickly turns to Rachel in desperation. "You can't leave!"

"Watch me." Rachel says without even looking back.

"Rachel, wait. Don't go1" The younger Chloe exclaims as fear creeps into her voice at the thought of losing her only friend.

Rachel stops, keeping her back to the younger Chloe for a moment before turning back to her. "Why not?" Rachel asks walking back to her a few steps before crossing her arms and waiting.

The younger Chloe looked like she was on the verge of tears. "Because...because I don't want to ruin this the way I ruin everything else in my life."

Rachel walks back to Chloe, still with her arms crossed. "And what is this exactly?"

That tripped up the younger Chloe for a moment. "A...a real friendship."

"Oh, is that it? " Rachel asks, disappointment was evident in her question.

That made Chloe even more confused. "I mean, I don't know. Yet. But I want to find out."

"I thought Chloe Price doesn't need friends?" Rachel asks, putting her hands on her hips.

"I...thought so too...before today. I guess it's easier to be alone if...if you decide it's a choice." The younger Chloe says sadly, opening herself up after forcing these kinds of feelings down after so long. "I'm sorry...for whatever I did or...didn't do. Today was the best day I've had since...since my dad died. And I screwed it up somehow...like I screw everything up, cuz I'm a fucking screw up."

"Chloe..."

"Please...I don't want to be alone anymore." The younger Chloe says, tears flowing from her eyes.

As she wipes her eyes, Rachel looks at Chloe sadly. "I'm sorry, Chloe, I can't say why...and I know it isn't fair. But, I can't be your friend right now."

"Can't...or don't want to?" Some anger crept into Chloe's voice as she wipes away a stray tear.

"Does it matter?" Rachel asks, stepping back away from younger Chloe. "I'm really sorry." She turns away from her and starts walking away. "Goodbye, Chloe." And with that Rachel leave the younger Chloe in the junkyard as she heads for the train tracks.

The younger Chloe looks around until she sees the baseball bat on the ground. She stomps over to it, picks it up, along with the current Chloe. The dreaming Chloe felt her rage building up as she walked towards the bat. Max's far-fetched story about being from the future, the betrayal she felt when Max hid the fact that she knew that Rachel was dead and didn't tell her, the fact that Max abandoned her for 5 years without calling or texting or getting into contact with her in the least. All of that along with the feeling she felt after being reunited with her best friend after so long fueled the rage in her belly. "Fuck. This. Place." She and her younger self say as they became one person before they started smashing everything in sight.

"Well now, aren't you just a ball of self hatred and pain?" A voice says from behind Chloe, stopping her after she beat down an old sign.

Steve stands there with his hands in his pockets looking right at her like it was just another day at the office. "Who the fuck are you?" Chloe asks, still seething with anger.

Steve blinked a couple times in surprise. "Huh, so you can see me. That's awesome. Unexpected, but awesome." Steve says before standing at attention and giving her a salute. "Captain Dickweed reporting for duty." He says before lowering his arm. "Not that I like the nickname, but if that gets you to recognize who I am, then what the hell? It's nice to actually talk with you, Chloe."

Chloe just glares at him as she puts two and two together. "Oh, you're Max's ghost bitch. Get lost. I don't need Max's guard dog looking after me."

Steve rolls his eyes in annoyance and steps closer to Chloe. "Yeah, she didn't send me. I go where I want. I'm not some dog to be commanded at my master's leisure." Steve says with a feigned air of nobility.

Chloe gave him a glare that stopped him before he took another step towards her. "Why are you even here, dickweed?"

"Gathering information. And that..." Steve says gesturing to Chloe's little path of destruction. "Gave me plenty."

"Get lost. I'm not going to say it again." Chloe says threateningly, gripping the bat tightly in her hand.

Steve smirks and puts his hands behind his back, not showing a care in the world. "Not till I've said my piece. You can get angry and try to throw punches all you want, but as you adequately put it, I'm a ghost bitch, so that won't get you very far."

Chloe's eye twitches at his arrogant attitude and walks up to Steve, throwing a punch right in the face, which made him back off and cry out with the sudden pain.

Steve holds his nose while he was seeing stars. "Okay...I stand corrected...ouch."

Chloe takes a few steps back shaking her hand to get rid of the pain from the punch. "That made me feel a little better."

Steve removes his hands and snorts to check his air way and for ectoplasm before shaking his head to clear it. "I'll consider that payback for the bunny ears? We cool?"

"Just shut the fuck up and go." Chloe says turning her back to him, trying to ignore Steve.

"Top answer on the board! Two things I won't be doing in the foreseeable future! Survey says! DING DING DING! You got it in one shot, good job." Steve says in his game show host voice before he keeps his arms to his side and bouncing from one foot to the other, readying himself in case he had to dodge Chloe's bat. "So keep swinging if you want to, but I'm going to be talking through it all. And we need to talk about what happened with Max today."

"Fuck Max, man!" Chloe shouts in anger, spinning back to face Steve. "How could she not tell me about Rachel? That's seriously fucked up."

"Yeah, I was going to make a big thing about it with Max, but after the explosion between you and her it seems kind of redundant now." Steve says with a forlorned sigh. "I really wanted to say 'I told you so' but you had to go and make that just pouring salt in a wound. There's no fun in that." Steve straightens up, tilting his head to the side and looking like he might regret what he was about to say. "But I can see her side of things, too."

"What side? Hanging that over me till the right time to drop it and shatter my world?" Chloe asks angrily. "It wouldn't be the first time."

"It's simple if you think about it, really. People are fucking idiots." Steve says with heavy disdain, getting a confused look from Chloe. Steve raises a hand to stop her from asking a question and continues. "You see, people walk through their daily lives all willy nilly, not realizing that they're about to make a poor choice at the exact wrong time for them and the people around them. Then they keep going and make it worse and worse until it inevitably blows up in their face. And that's just people thinking about themselves. Now throw someone they care about into the mix and any semblance of rational thought or common sense gets stuffed into a cannon and shot right the hell out the window. Now why do they do this? Reason one: because we want to protect the people we care about from pain, whether it be physical or emotional. It's only common sense that we want the people around us to be happy, or at the very least not living in utter misery. The other reasons...well, they vary from person to person depending on the situation."

Chloe scoffs at that. "Yeah, like Max really cares. She only came back to save her conscience."

Steve shakes his head and scoffs at that. "Wow, you don't know Max at all, do you?" Steve says, which earned him a hostile glare from Chloe. He just smiled at it, not giving Chloe an inch. "No, moron, she came back to save her best friend. To save you."

"Yeah, I'm her best friend." Chloe says with a scoff of disbelief. "She leaves me in this shit stain of a town while she goes and lives it up in Seattle. She doesn't call or text or write and I don't hear from her for five years. Then she comes barreling back into my life and tells me all this bullshit about a storm and just so happens to hide the fact that my friend is dead until the cops dig up her fucking corpse right in front of me!" Chloe says getting angrier and angrier as she ranted.

Steve looks at Chloe with curiosity. "Are you really sulking about that? Or is this a smoke screen to hide what you're really feeling?"

"And what am I really feeling?" Chloe asks challengingly. "Tell me what you think I'm really feeling."

"I'm the last person you want to hear that answer from, cuz I don't hold back. So for the sake of having a semi-intelligent conversation I'll keep my opinion to myself, for now." Steve says, crossing his arms over his chest. "But everything you just said, well, that's just life happening. As we grow older we sometimes drift apart from the people we thought were going to be with us through our entire lives. I had friends that I couldn't picture a day without, but as the years pasted we saw less and less of each other until we couldn't even recognize ourselves. You have to move on or stay where you are, life continues regardless that you're mad at the world and everyone in it."

"Oh yeah, that's life. That shit just happens." Chloe says in disgust through a pained scowl. "It happens to me all the damn time! My dad dying, Max leaving, my mom marries that jackass, and now Rachel's death. But yeah, okay, that's just life for you." Chloe stomps away from Steve, wanting to be left alone. "Life's not fair."

Not having any of that, Steve follows after her. "No shit, life's not fair. But it's still there to be lived regardless of how you feel towards it. The wheel is forever in motion and, short of another meteor like what wiped out the dinosaurs, the wheel will never stop turning."

Chloe stops and turns to Steve. "Yeah, everyone leaves you, the end. That's life."

"And that's what's making you angry? Because a handful of people left you? Lied to you?" Steve asks before snorting condescendingly. "Well save that for old age, woman. Because you've got a whole bunch of people who still depend on you."

Chloe stomps up and gets right up in Steve's face. "They're all gone because of me!"

"And now every moment you waste wallowing in your self-pity about that just means that more of them are going to join the ones that are already gone." Steve says bending down to get in Chloe's face to make sure he has her full and undivided attention. "If you want people to stand by you, to stick with you through thick and thin, remember this: it's not just about you." Steve says poking Chloe in the chest. "Not anymore. Believe me, I know." Steve stands straight again. "It's time to grow up, Chloe."

"What the fuck do you know? You're just some arrogant dick who probably never had anything to lose in the first place. And if you did, you probably deserved it." Chloe says angrily, practically biting Steve's head off.

However, what she said obviously hit a nerve because Steve's eyes went cold, hard, and angry as he grabs Chloe by her shoulders and slams her into one of the junked cars behind her, getting right in her face with a look of pure fury and the promise of violence. "I've walked away form a destroyed city countless times, knowing full well that everyone and everything in it was dead." Steve says with a voice filled with restrained anger. "A little over a minute, that's how long it took for hundreds of thousands of people to die, and those were just the lucky ones that died quickly. I have heard more screams and cries than you could possibly fathom and I still hear them every time I close my eyes. I have seen things you wouldn't believe, I've lost things you could never understand. So do not presume to think you know me or what I've been through."

Chloe could practically feel the intent of violence coming from Steve, but her own anger responded in kind, giving back what Steve was dishing out. Steve closed his eyes for a moment, looking like it was a physical effort to calm down and took a steadying breath. "I'll let that slide for now, since you're angry. But that was your one freebie." Steve says with seething anger, letting her go and taking a step back from her, though his hands were still balled into tight, shaking fists.

Chloe straightens herself before glaring at Steve. "You done yet?"

Steve was still looking to the ground before looking up at Chloe. "You know, you're a fucking idiot, Chloe Price." Steve slashes his hand to stop the comeback that was about to come out of Chloe. "You're standing there saying you're alone in life, but that's a giant pile of shit no shovel could handle in any form of existence. You still have your mom, my god she has to have the patience of a saint to be able to deal with your bullshit all day every day. David, how many times has your 'step-douche' helped you out? Without you knowing? Without you showing him one ounce of gratitude? And Max...I honestly don't know what the hell she sees in you, but that woman is trying her damnedest to keep you safe and happy. And before you start, yes, she fucked up. I know it, you know it, she knows it. But guess what? People fuck up all the time. I know. That's gotta be a real shocker there, for you, right? Even the people we love the most can fuck up so badly that we don't know if we can trust them ever again, but all you have to know is no matter what they've got your back." Steve says getting and idea and raising his hand. "This is going to suck for me, but here, let me show you what I mean." Steve says snapping his fingers.

Suddenly they were inside Chloe's house back in 2008. William and Chloe are making pancakes as Max is frantically searching around the living room for William's car keys. "What the hell is going on?" Chloe asks in great confusion, looking around her house before her eyes became glued to her father. "Dad?"

"This is the day that your father, William, died. Shown to you by Max's memories. I went through them when I was dream hoping in her head, gathering info on her." Steve explains before pointing to Max. "The 18 year old Max, the Max you thought you spent all of yesterday chilling with, is currently in her 13 year old body, trying to change your dad's fate." Steve says before knocking Chloe on the arm lightly. "For you. Not for herself, not even for William. For you, Chloe."

Max kept searching until William came in and grabs his car keys from under his hat on the coffee table. Suddenly time rewinds to when William is back in the kitchen and Max goes to his hat, grabs his keys, and chucks them out the window.

Chloe looks out the window to see where the keys went, but was greeted by white nothingness beyond the window. "What's all this?"

"When Max jumps back any significant length of time she does it through photos. She can focus on that moment and travel back to it, with some limitations though. She can only stay back for a few minutes and only within the confines of the subject of the photos. So, a picture of you an Chloe in the kitchen with the living room behind you, that's all she can interact with. Now, you'd think that the fact that she can only interact with things in that area wouldn't amount to much, and on the larger scale of things you'd be right. But in the smaller scale, the more personal scale, its enough to change the course of history forever for several people." Steve explains as he nods to Max telling William to take the bus to pick up Joyce from the grocery store.

"Why are you showing me this?" Chloe asks breathlessly as she stares at her father as he leaves through the front door.

"Because I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, bitch, get used to it." Steve says, trying to sound mysterious. "That and I'm making a point." Steve explains before watching William walk out the front door. "One small act, that's all it took. The act of hiding your dad's car keys resulted in saving him and changing your family's history as you know it. But every alteration in time has its consequences."  
Steve snaps his fingers again and this time they were outside of Chloe's house, with 18 year old Max knocking on the front door, anxiously waiting for it to open. After a moment William opens the door and beams at the unexpected guest, glad to see Max again after 5 years. Chloe smiles and her eyes water at the sight of her dad alive and well in the present. "Dad..."

Steve puts his hand on Chloe's shoulder and shakes his head. "We're not here to see him, Chloe. We're here to see..." Steve looks through the open door and points at the approaching silhouette from behind William. "You."

Chloe follows Steve's gaze past William and gasps in shock as she sees herself in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the neck down. "What...what happened?"

"For your 16th birthday your dad got you a truck. You were run off the road by a reckless drive, the accident cause your back to snap. It was the last feeling you had before everything below your neck went numb." Steve explains sadly before snapping his fingers again. This time they were in the garage that was remodeled into Chloe's new room. "And this is the day you asked Max to kill you." Steve says, sounding increasingly more tired after every change in memory.

Chloe looks up at Steve in bewilderment before looking back at herself laying in bed and Max sitting beside her bed. "Why?"

"Your respiratory system was starting to fail. You were in constant pain and your condition was making your family pay more than a million bucks a year just to keep you alive. And despite everyone trying to keep you in the dark about it, you knew because you're not an idiot." Steve says walking up to the bed ridden Chloe, looking at her sadly. "You had such a great day with Max, your best friend. You wanted to make that to be your last memory." Steve says patting the bedridden Chloe's hand then walking back to the real Chloe. "Max has a strength that I could never have nor want." Steve says, keeping his back as the scene unfolds behind him.

Max got out of her chair and walks up to the IV hanging beside Chloe's bed. With shaking hands, she turns the dosage up to a fatal amount before sitting back down next to Chloe. They talked for a few brief moments, sharing tears as Chloe's head slowly bobs down, her eyes fluttering closed, and she breathed her last breath.

Chloe watched horror struck as she just watched herself die. "Holy fuck."

"Yeah." Steve says, rubbing his thumb between his eyebrows to try and forget what he saw. "If that was me, I don't think...no, I know I couldn't do it." Steve was anxious to get out of this memory, so he continued. "Then Max had to do something terrible, something she would have to live with silently for the rest of her life." Steve says before snapping his fingers once more and they were back in Chloe's house in 2008 once more. "In order to save you from that fate, Max came back here, and let events take their course." Steve says nodding to Max standing by the fire, burning the picture she used to get here so she could never do it again.

William finds his keys and Chloe wanted to call out to her dad as he said his last words to the younger Max and Chloe, but she didn't know what she could say, and before she could utter a word, William walked out the front door. The memory Chloe looks at Max while she was crying, confused as to why. "I remember this." The current Chloe says breathlessly as her memory and the memory from Max coincided in front of her.

The past Chloe comes in from the kitchen and sees Max. "Max, you are being so fucking strange, like you're never going to see us again."

Max looks up at Chloe with tears in her eyes. "Chloe, I'm so sorry, I tried to make things different for you...I...I did try, I'm sorry."

"I don't know exactly what you're talking about, but come on." Chloe says grabbing Max by her arms trying to cheer her up. "You have made things different, like my whole life. You're my best friend. I've got you and a great family. What's to be sorry for? We'll be best friends forever. And when we grow up we're taking over the world." She says with a playful smile.

Max grabs Chloe's arms as well. "Listen, whatever happens, I want you to be strong. Even if you feel like I wasn't there for you, because I will never abandon you, Chloe." Max says holding Chloe's hands. "I'll always have your back. Always." Max says as the scene starts to dissolve.

"What's going on now?" Chloe says looking around worriedly.

"Max is going back to the present." Steve explains as they were surrounded by white nothingness. "She never abandoned you, Chloe. She risked her life and the thought of reality itself to save you. From Nathan, from a train, from that alternate timeline, from Jefferson, even yourself a few times." Steve says before glaring at her as he remembered everything he saw from Max's memories. "Seriously, how could you be smart in one reality and in another dumb enough to play with a stolen gun and get hit by a fuckin' ricochet?" Steve shakes his head, starting to feel a bit woozy from actively showing memories to Chloe. "But we're getting off topic. The point is that Max did that because, despite the hardship, despite everything that could have happened to herself, through all of that she had your back. And she always will."

Steve snaps his fingers again, and they were at the lighthouse during the storm. "Holy shit! Is this the storm Max was talking about?" Chloe exclaims as she saw the massive tornado in the water heading for the town.

Steve used a tree to keep himself steady, his stamina dipping down to dangerously low levels. "Friday October 11th, 2013." Steve clarifies as he pushes off the tree to stand on his own. "The day Max had to decide whether to sacrifice you or Arcadia Bay. Knowing that sacrificing one would save the other."

"Why is it standing still?" Chloe asks looking around seeing everything was standing still. "Are you stopping time or something?"

Steve laughs at that. "No, it's frozen because this isn't the future, per se. I don't know what showing you your own future would do, so let's just say I don't want to see first hand how that paradox would play out." Steve explained then nods to the frozen Max and Chloe. "As I was saying, she always had her back. At this moment, every fiber of her being was screaming at her to save you. But you told her to do the, quote unquote, right thing. You talked Max into making one last jump in time." Steve says before pointing to the butterfly photo in the frozen Chloe's hand.

"That's...that's the day Nathan almost shot me." Chloe says, understanding now where this was going.

"No. To Max that's the day you died." Steve explains somberly. "The day...she became...well..." Steve sighs and holds his head, already having a massive headache from jumping into Chloe's dream and all the shifting through Max's memories. "Fuck it." He says before snapping his fingers one more time.

They were standing in Max's apartment in 2017. Papers with notes on them were all over the place. And standing in the middle of it all was Max and Steve, also frozen in the moment when they were going through every event Max could remember about this week. "Wow." Chloe says looking at how different Max looked.

Steve was using the wall as a crutch since the room was spinning for him. "August 11th, 2017." Steve explains, forcing himself to stand without using the wall as a crutch. "All of this." Steve says, gesturing at the papers of notes. "Is for trying to save you and Arcadia Bay."

Chloe looks around, not believing what she was seeing. She turns and sees the paintings along the one wall and her eyes were swimming with tears. "Max..."

Steve looks at them and smiles as he remembered the first time he saw them. "She never forgot you, Chloe. Never. She hated herself for sacrificing you. These were her way of keeping the memories of the best and worst week of your lives alive in a reality where they didn't exist." Steve looks back to Chloe, really hoping he got through to her. "Please tell me you understand, cuz I'm about out of gas and I can't do another clip show to show you the good times you've had with Max."

Chloe looks back to frozen Max, her back to Steve as her mind raced with everything she had seen. "You're a real asshole, you know." Chloe says with a hard voice, with anger still in it. Steve groans and puts his head in his hand, thinking that all this was meaningless before Chloe continued speaking. "Thank you." She said before turning around with tears in her eyes and a small smile across her lips. "You're one hella good friend for my Max."

Steve gave Chloe a small sad, tired smile. "I'm no one's friend, Chloe. I don't do friends. You're the friend she wants, the friend she needs. I'm just a means to an end, and I'm okay with that."

Chloe wipes her eyes. "Sorry for giving you a hard time earlier."

Steve chuckles humorously, glad he got through to Chloe. "I've been through worse than that. Just do me a favor, don't waste this chance that you and Max have. Together, you two can do some real good for this town. Even if it doesn't deserve it." Steve says before raising his hand. "Peace out, Chloe." Steve snaps his fingers one last time and everything faded to black.

* * *

Chloe wakes up several minutes later and immediately sits up, thinking about her dream and wondering if it was real. She looked around to get her bearings and saw that the sun was setting in the distance. She looks around, expecting to see Steve, but could only find a trickle of black goo retreating from Chloe. "Ew...You've got to get that under control, Slimer."

**Chloe: Did you seriously have pink hair in the future?**

**Max: Um...yeah. How did you know?**

**Chloe: Met Slimer.**

**Max: Slimer?**

**Chloe: The ghost from Ghostbusters. I'll explain later, you hippie.**

**Max: Wait, you're talking about Steve? How'd that happen?**

**Chloe: Dude just jumped into my damned dream and showed me some stuff. The dudes is definitely an asshole, but he made some good points in your defense.**

**Max: I'm so sorry about not telling you about Rachel. I don't expect you to forgive me, but I am truly sorry.**

**Chloe: Save it, Max. Your friend told me everything. I'm still pissed about it but I think I forgive you. No promises though.**

**Max: Thank you, Chloe. You have no idea how much this means to me. I promise I will tell you everything from now on.**

**Chloe:You'd better, brat. Are you free right now? I'd like to talk to you.**

**Max: No I'm at Blackwell talking to the police about Jefferson and Nathan. I'm not in any trouble. I just have to explain how I knew about the Dark Room. And I can't exactly tell them everything.**

Chloe looks to the setting sun, at the same moment the solar eclipse, that Max told her about yesterday when she was explaining mostly everything, had begun.  _"Holy shit. This is actually happening."_  Chloe thinks, feeling uneasy by the sight and the predictions that Max told her were signs of the tornado.

**Chloe: Lemme know when you get out of the slammer. This eclipse freaks me out...**

**Max: We'll figure it out, I know we will. Together.**


	7. Together Forever

**Chapter 7: Together Forever**

"Okay, take me through this one more time." Detective Morris says, sitting across the table from Max in the science lab, taking notes from Max's story about how she knew about the Dark Room.

"We've been through this eight times already." Max says in exasperation, irritated that this was still going on and a bit anxious to get out of here to see Chloe. "How many more times do you want me to tell you the same thing?"

"Repetition helps shake loose small details that you've forgotten when you tell the story the first times. This is just procedure, so please bear with me." Morris explains with an apologetic smile. "Now, who was this person who approached you?"

Max lets out a long-suffering sigh, absentmindedly petting Blue as he laid on her lap, just out of the detective's view. "His name is Steve, he told me he was an amateur private investigator looking into the disappearance of Rachel Amber."

Morris made a note before nodding at Max. "And you've never seen or had any contact with him prior to meeting him?"

"No and since that day I haven't seen or heard from him again." Max answers simply for the ninth time. "But he told me about his investigation and how he had figured most of it out. The video of Kate that was uploaded onto the internet was what brought him into the investigation in the first place, he thought it was odd that someone who would never fit that kind of profile would act like that and he wanted to get to the bottom of it. After that, he found that several people in the area have experienced similar situations as Kate's and that lead him to Rachel's disappearance. After that he looked for common denominators in the victims and figured that it was a student or teacher here at Blackwell. He dug around and found out that Mr. Jefferson had been in cities that have had the same pattern. So, he followed Mr. Jefferson around and that's what lead him to the old Prescott barn."

Max had to concentrate on trying to sound genuine to the detective. The last thing she needed was to be detained for further questioning. That would have risked her being locked up when the tornado was going to hit. "Nathan met with Mr. Jefferson one night out there and after they left he was able to get into the Dark Room below and see everything that Mr. Jefferson and Nathan were doing. Once he had everything he erased the video of him being there so Mr. Jefferson and Nathan couldn't find out that he was onto them. That's when he approached me in front of Blackwell and told me all of this."

"That's what I'm having trouble understanding. Why did he approach you, of all people?" Morris asks, taking more notes.

"He told me all of this because after researching all the students at Blackwell he saw me as the person who could get close enough to them without drawing suspicions." Max explains with a shrug. "I can't deny that I didn't want to believe his accusations towards Mr. Jefferson, but something has always felt off about him. The way he talks about certain subjects, he spoke like someone who was teaching, but the undertones were a little darker than you'd expect. So I decided to play it by ear."

"Why did he tell you any of this information instead of going to the police with it?" Morris asks, continuing to make notes and observe Max closely.

A wicked smile spread over Max's lips. "If you had the displeasure of talking to him, you'd know he's an arrogant ass that's so full of himself that I'm legitimately surprised that concrete doesn't crack every time he takes a step. He wanted to figure it all out before the police got involved, just to prove that he could do it and be right. But once he got into the Dark Room he thought he would be targeted by them, so he told me everything and went into hiding."

"So you were informed of this, but didn't contact the police either?" Morris asks skeptically.

All Max could do was shrug at that. "A random stranger walks up and tells you something so far fetched that you didn't believe him at first. Would you have wasted the police's time when you didn't have any solid evidence?"

That got a small smile from Morris. "Touche. So what happened after that?"

"Not much." Max explains, heading from pure fiction back to the truth. "I didn't have anything until Nathan brought that gun into the girl's bathroom. I started to get freaked out by that and thought that Steve's story wasn't so far fetched anymore. So I sent that video and text to David Madeson. I figured that with his reputation for being paranoid that he would at least look into what I sent him."

Morris nods and writes that down. "That video was taken after the altercation between Nathan Prescott and Chloe Price, am I correct?"

That question almost broke the mask of feigned ignorance.  _"Calm down, Max. If they're coming to you then they would have asked Nathan about the bathroom situation. Of course, he'd bring up Chloe's involvement."_  Max thinks to herself, taking a moment to calm down. "I didn't think about recording it until after I hit the fire alarm and I didn't know that Chloe was the girl who was in the bathroom with Nathan until she almost hit me with her truck in the parking lot. By then I just wanted to get the hell out of there since Nathan came up and threatened me, tried to choke me, then beat up Warren."

"Warren Graham?" Morris asked, flipping through his notebook. "I talked with him earlier and he told me about that situation, too."

"Yeah, Warren got beaten pretty bad, but thanks to him and Chloe, they helped me escape and the rest you know." Max finishes, looking at the clock and wondering how much longer this was going to take.

Morris nodded as he jotted down some final notes and closed his notepad. "I think I have everything I need. Thank you for your time and cooperation, Miss Caulfield." Morris says, standing up, heading to the door and opening it for Max.

"It's not a problem, detective." Blue jumped down from Max's lap and together they walk out off the science room and down the hall towards the front entrance.

They stopped and waited by the principals office for Kate and Trudeau, who came out of the office after another half an hour. When Kate and Trudeau came out, Max saw the dismayed look on Kate's face and instantly brought her in for a comforting hug. After that, they all walk outside into the late afternoon glow of Blackwell's courtyard. The police barricades, the press, and nearly everyone else was gone, only a few students were still hanging out in the courtyard, talking about everything that happened today.

Trudeau pulls out a cigarette, lights it, and takes a drag before blowing out the smoke. He turns to the young women and smiles tiredly at them. "Ladies, thank you again for your cooperation. I think we have all we need, but we may need to get in contact again, so please stay in the area and keep yourselves available."

"We will, sorry I couldn't be more help." Kate says, still looking dazed after seeing the pictures that Nathan and Jefferson took of her while she was drugged in the Dark Room.

Trudeau chuckles warmly and placed a comforting hand on Kate's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Miss Marsh, you helped plenty by helping us fill in some of the blanks we had. Now all you have to do is rest. I know today was hard for you. Have you been in contact with your parents?"

"Yes, my family is flying out to come be with me after hearing about all of this. Thank you for your concern, detective." Kate says, still looking troubled.

"Not a problem. You two stay safe now, you hear?" Trudeau says before he and Morris head to their police cruiser and head back to town towards the police station.

Max looks at Kate with concern, still worried about how Kate was handling everything after learning of what Nathan and Jefferson did to her. "How are you doing?"

Kate puts on a friendly smile for Max, though the smile didn't reach her eyes. "I think I'll be okay. Thank you so much for being there for me today. You have no idea how much that means to me to have a friend like you, Max."

Max blushes slightly at the praise. "I didn't do much, just waited in the hall while you talked to them about what happened. You did everything by yourself, Kate. You're really strong, you know that?"

Kate shakes her head in denial. "No, you were there for me when no one else was, Max. Thank you. Seriously, thank you."

That made Max feel all warm inside. "You're welcome, Kate." Max says then looks over, seeing Victoria sitting alone by the fountain, looking down and depressed. "Victoria has to be hurting, learning her friend was doing all of that."

"Let's go talk to her." Kate suggests, then goes over without waiting for Max's response. Max follows her and stands beside her as Kate talked to Victoria. "Hey, Victoria. Are you doing okay?"

"Do I look like I'm doing okay?" Victoria snaps at her before wincing in regret. "I'm sorry, Kate. It's just been a really bad day for me."

"I know what you mean." Kate says before sitting down next to Victoria. "I just had to look at the photos that Mr. Jefferson and Nathan took of me when I was drugged."

Victoria's eyes went wide with shock before she scooted a few inches away from Kate, feeling really uncomfortable now for snapping at her. "So...you were drugged at the Vortex Club party. Now I feel even shittier for posting that video."

"It was a shitty thing to do." Max points out, not with any malice, just stating a fact. "But you made up for that. And Kate has forgiven you for it, so don't worry so much about that."

"How can I not worry about that?" Victoria said, angrier than she meant to be. "Nathan was one of my best friends, Max. Sure, he had his moments of being weird, having meltdowns here and there because his family treated him like a freak. But this...I never saw this coming." Victoria says before looking at the ground thoughtfully. "No, that's a lie. To be honest, he's been freaking me out lately."

"I'm sorry, Victoria. I can't say I know what you're going through, but I know you'll be okay. You're a really strong person." Kate says comfortingly.

Victoria looked at Kate with a thoughtful expression that Max had rarely seen from her outside of her photography, like she was studying something in a different way for the first time. "I don't understand you, Kate. I've been a pretty awful bitch to you, you just found out you've gone through this whole horrible ordeal, and here you are comforting me about my friend, the same person who did all that to you. You should hate me and Nathan with every fiber of your being, it doesn't make sense to me."

Kate let out a small laugh at that. "I didn't really appreciate the way you've been treating me for a long while, but I don't hate you, Victoria. Nathan either, really. I feel sorry for him and I'm sad that his life choices turned him down the path he took." Kate looked away, out towards the setting sun. "You know, after everything that happened with the Vortex Club party, I didn't think I could get myself out of the rut I was in. I felt like I was alone, that everyone in this school hated me and thought I was some kind of slut. My mother and my aunt kept berating me about letting the family and our church down by acting on sinful urges. I was half tempted to just end it all because the pain was too great."

"Oh my God, I...I didn't think it was that bad." Victoria says, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief about Kate having suicidal thoughts. "I...I am truly sorry, Kate."

"It's okay, Victoria. Because when I was at my lowest..." Kate looks up to Max with nothing but fondness in her eyes. "Max came up to me and told me I wasn't alone. That there were people here for me and that they had my back. I want you to know the same, Victoria. You aren't alone, I'll be here for you." Kate's eyes were watering before she let out another small laugh before looking back to Victoria. "But I have to admit, when Max went up and chewed you out in front of Mr. Jefferson, it kind of made my day. Sorry if that seems mean of me."

"After what I've done to you and what I almost drove you to do, I could be hit by a car and laugh your ass off at me. And I would think I fully deserved it." Victoria says with a small smile before looking up to Max. "You know, Max? I will completely deny saying this if you tell anyone, but I've actually been jealous of you."

"Jealous of me? Why?" Max asks, seriously confused.

"You're one of the coolest people here at Blackwell, and it's not because of your looks or you wealth or you standing in the art community. It's because you don't care about what other people think of you, unlike me." Victoria says, feeling the need to get this off her chest. "I've always felt I've needed to overcompensate for no good reason. And that's why I'm always just a bitch to everyone. I'm insecure about a lot of things, especially my photography. With my parents owning a art gallery and everything, I was raised to believe that the art world is a brutal one so I thought I always needed to be tough to be successful. But you're genuinely kind, the both of you are. Max, your photos are really good and Kate, your drawings have always been awesome, but I saw your kindness as weakness so I wanted to show everyone who's the queen bitch on top. But I honestly think I don't have any talent at all."

"That's not true." Both Max and Kate say at the same time, making all three of them laugh for a moment before Max continued. "I think you do have talent, Victoria. You're photos have a Richard Avedon-esque feel to them, but you've made them your own."

"Yeah, Max is right, your photography is really good, even I can tell." Kate says reassuring Victoria and putting a hand on her shoulder.

Victoria smiled sadly as her eyes start to water, upon realizing this she laughs and wipes her eyes before she could cry. "I can't believe how much of a bitch I've been to the both of you. I really am sorry." Victoria looks to Max and smiles. "You said it was us that decides that we're not enemies, do you think it's possible to maybe be friends?"

"I'd like that." Max says, mostly surprised at herself about how honest she was about that.

Victoria nods before looking to Kate. "And you, too. I know I've done some horrible stuff, to you specifically, but do you think we could be friends?"

"I'd love that, Victoria." Kate says, practically beaming at her.

Max's cellphone chimes from a new text and she takes out her phone to look at the message from Chloe.

**Chloe: Hey, think you could meet me at American Rust? I left my truck there, and I'm not exactly sober right now.**

**Max: Yeah, I'll head there right now. Don't you dare think about getting behind the wheel.**

**Chloe: Not like I haven't before, but I'll listen to you just this once cuz I'm buzzed. And the sooner you get here the better. Mom has been blowing up my phone about the cops wanting to talk to me.**

**Max: Because of Nathan?**

**Chloe: I'll explain when you get here, just hurry please.**

**Max: On my way now. See you soon.**

Max looks up as a bus pulls up to the school before looking back to Victoria and Kate. "I'm sorry, guys, but I've got some stuff I need to do. Something really important has come up. Are you two going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I should be good. My parents are stopping by in the morning. Thank you again, Max. I'll talk to you later." Kate says with a warm smile.

"Don't worry about it, Max. You're not the type of person to blow someone off without a good reason. Be careful, okay?" Victoria says with a friendly smile, something Max thought she'd never see from the queen bitch of Blackwell.

"I'll talk to you guys later. I promise." Max says before running off to catch the bus before it left with Blue chasing after her.

* * *

The bus only took me so close to American Rust, so it took Max and Blue another 10 minutes of walking before they finally saw the junkyard. Chloe was leaning against her truck and talking to herself. That worried Max as she started to approach her, but stopped after remembering about what happened in this spot this morning.

Max stood still, just looking at Chloe, trying to think of what to say before Blue rubbed against her leg. Max looked down to the cat and smiled as he looked up at her and meowed before rubbing against her leg again and purring. It was like the cat was telling Max it was okay to go and talk to Chloe, though Max didn't know how she understood that from just a meow.

Max bends down to pet Blue before she takes a steadying breath and starts walking towards Chloe with Blue walking beside her. Chloe heard Max approach and walked around the truck to meet her. They stop a few feet from each other, their eyes avoiding each other. "I'm so sorry, Chloe. I know it was wrong to hold that information back about Rachel." Max says after a minute of awkward silence.

"Don't worry about it. After exploding at you like I did this morning, I see why you didn't tell me about Rachel. I don't think I would have taken that well no matter when you told me." Chloe says before smiling sadly at Max. "I'm sorry, too."

"You have nothing to be sorry for. That was my massive fuck up. And I promise you from now on I will be completely honest with you." Max vows, finally looking Chloe in the eyes.

"No, I was just being an emo bitch about the entire thing." Chloe says before smiling. "You've got a good friend looking out for you with your ghost bitch."

Max then noticed that Steve wasn't with Chloe and looks around. "Where is Steve anyway?"

"He isn't here?" Chloe says looking around despite not being able to see Steve. "Have I been talking to empty air the entire ride back here?"

Max felt relieved now, knowing that Chloe wasn't talking to herself, just trying to talk to Steve, but now she was starting to get worried about him since he wasn't here. Max looks down to Blue in concern. "Do you know where he is?" The cat stares blankly up at Max before sniffing the air and walking away, conveying that he'd find him. "When you find him, have him meet us at my dorm." Max calls after the spectral cat.

Chloe raises an eyebrow at Max, wonder what the hell she was doing. "What are you talking to? Another ghost?"

Max laughs, remembering Chloe couldn't see the cat. "No, it's Steve's cat, Blue. He's his familiar or spirit animal or something like that."

Chloe blinks at that. "Yeah, I have no idea what any of that is, but he's really got a cat? How can a ghost have a freakin' cat?"

Max shrugs at that. "I don't really know myself. It's all new to me too. That's just something else we'll have to have him explain."

"He was real tired after showing me those visions. Maybe he's taking a nap or something and that's why he's not here?" Chloe asks not sounding sure about that theory.

Max raises an eyebrow at that as her curiosity spiked about the visions. "What did he show you exactly?"

Chloe tells her about her conversation with Steve, the alternate timeline from Max's trip into the past, and Max's future when she chose to sacrifice Chloe for Arcadia Bay. "After that, he snapped his fingers and I woke up."

Max listened to all of that and a flash of anger went through her.  _"That bastard went through my memories? Without me knowing about it? WHAT AN ASS!"_  Max thinks to herself before thinking about it.  _"On the other hand though, it was because of that Chloe is here again with me...I'll channel my inner Kate and forgive him for this, but only this once...jerk."_

Max sighs heavily before giving Chloe a half smile. "That guy can really piss you off."

Chloe chuckles at that. "Oh god, yeah he can. He was being an arrogant asshole so I punched him right in the nose. You should have seen his face when it actually hurt him, it was priceless."

"OH! I'm so jealous of you right now. I've been wanting to punch him in the face since day one." Max says with envy and a laugh.

They laugh together for a few moments before they both look at each other, knowing the next conversation isn't going to be pleasant. "I think we need to talk about Rachel."

"Yeah, I think we do, too." Max admits, sounding small and quiet. "You deserve to know everything."

Chloe pulls out her keys and tosses them to Max. "Let's go to my place and talk. Mom's at the Two Whales and step-douche is still working up at Blackwell, so we'll have some privacy." Chloe starts walking towards her truck with Max following behind. "I also need to tell you about what Nathan did to me...before you got here."

"Is this about the time he drugged you and took photos of you in his room when you were trying to get his money?" Max asks curiously.

Chloe stops and turns to Max, looking really surprised. "How do you know about that?"

"That's right, we didn't have a chance to really talk about it this week." Max says remembering that yesterday was mostly spent talking about what Max was doing here. "Uh...yeah, the last time I went through this week you told me while we were up at the lighthouse yesterday. I got so angry I wanted to kick the shit out of Nathan myself."

"That I'd pay good money to see. You know, if I had any." Chloe says sighing heavily. "Well then, I'm glad I don't have to talk about that. At least not yet. I'm so not looking forward to having that conversation with the police. But for now, get your ass in the truck and take me home so you can tell me everything. And I mean everything."

Max smiles and tears up a little, glad to have her friend back again. "Yeah, I'll tell you everything."

* * *

They pull up to Chloe's house and head in. Once inside Chloe starts heading up the stairs. Max hangs back for a moment looking at the door leading to the garage. "Go on up, I need to grab something real quick."

"Alright, don't keep me waiting." Chloe says sternly before walking into her room.

Max walks into the garage and walks to David's lockers on the far side of the room. She looks at the lock on the lockers, remembering the combo and entering it to get it open. Once inside she grabs the files David has on Rachel and walks back to the bottom of the stairs.

Max hesitated for a moment but remembers that David still has security cameras through the house before she rewinds time to just as Chloe goes into her room. She climbs the stairs and goes into Chloe's room just as she's lighting a cigarette while sitting on her bed. "Wow that was fast." Chloe remarks before pulling on the cigarette and blowing out the smoke.

"I needed to grab David's file on Rachel to help explain things, then I remembered that he has cameras around the house so I had to use my rewind to get rid of any evidence." Max explains holding up the file.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa...That paranoid asshole has cameras around the house?" Chloe exclaims in anger before she rose to her feet. "I fucking knew it. That fucking asshole...this is going too far!"

Max winced, forgetting that Chloe didn't know about the cameras until she told her about them up at the lighthouse. Max quietly berates herself and thinks back trying to remember everything that she had forgotten to tell Chloe. After a couple moments she couldn't think of anything so she holds up her hands trying to placate Chloe. "Listen Chloe, I know David is hella paranoid, but trust me, if you bring them up to him he will take them down. Plus he's not as bad of a guy as you think he is."

"The fucker put cameras in our house to spy on us, Max. I was starting to think that maybe I should give him a chance after talking to Slimer, but now, fuck that." Chloe says, fuming with anger. "The fucker needs to be kicked out of here."

"Chloe...I know you don't want to hear this, but just give me a minute and I'll explain everything okay?" Max asks, trying to calm Chloe down before dropping a few other bombshells on her.

Chloe stares at Max hard for a moment before sighing and sitting back down on the bed. "I'll let it go just for now. So go ahead, Max. Explain away."

Max sighs with relief before looking back to Chloe nervously. "Before I start telling you all of this, I have to ask. Are you sure you want to know everything? You're going to get really pissed once you hear about it all. And I mean  _really_  pissed." Max cautions, imagining Chloe losing her mind about what she was about to reveal to her.

Chloe looks at the file for a moment as she thinks before nodding. "I need to know Max. Tell me everything."

And so Max did. She told Chloe about Rachel and Frank's relationship, how Rachel was caught with hardcore drugs in a pack by David and Principal Wells. Rachel's relationship with Jefferson and how Nate also had the hots for her. She then delves into explaining their investigation into Rachel's disappearance, collecting info from David, Nathan, and Frank. She then tells her about how they found the Dark Room and everything inside, including Rachel's portfolio, before they went to the junkyard and found Rachel's body.

Max was sitting at Chloe's desk, facing her. "We went to find Nathan because all the evidence pointed to him. But he was already dead, he was killed by Jefferson, and Jefferson used that opportunity to trick us to go back to the junkyard. There...he killed you and kidnapped me. But David saved me from Jefferson."

That made Chloe's eyes widen in surprise. "I can't believe he did that. I didn't think he'd care about you at all after you helped get him thrown out of here." Chloe says in a flat monotone.

Max knew that Chloe was trying her hardest to keep her anger in check until she heard the entire story, but Max had to continue even though she knew Chloe was only going to add fuel to the powder keg known as Chloe's anger. "Chloe...I don't really want to say this right now. But I think you're wrong about David, at least a little bit. He is a good guy, and he does care about you. After I told him what Jefferson did to you in the junkyard, he flipped out and killed Jefferson all because he hurt you."

That actually made Chloe go wide eyed with surprise. "I...I had no idea."

Max nods in confirmation before continuing. "After that I had to use my power a whole lot to bring you back. And the rest you know."

Chloe butted out her cigarette that was mostly ash since she was listening to what all Max had to say. "I can't believe this." Chloe says holding her head in her arms. "That fucking bitch lied right to my face about everything." Chloe gets up and starts pacing around the room, the anger Max expected showing its face. "Having sex with that pig Frank and then that psycho Jefferson."

Max remains silent as Chloe goes off yelling as loud as she could while slating everything on Rachel. "I'm sorry, Chloe."

Chloe wheels around and glares at Max, looking absolutely livid, but she took a moment and calmed down a bit. "It's not your fault, Max." Chloe says genuinely before she goes to her stash of weed and starts rolling a joint. "I don't want to sound too emo, but I think I need a few minutes alone. I need to process this."

"That's not a problem. It's been a long day, could I use your shower?" Max asks, wanting to do anything to help Chloe get through this.

"Yeah, you know where all the towels are." Chloe says as she finishes rolling the joint. As Max reaches the door, Chloe looks over to her. "Max...thank you. I mean that. I really needed to know about all of this."

Max smiles warmly at Chloe. "Any time, you know I've always got your back, right?"

Chloe smiles weakly at Max. "I know. Now get out of here. I need to blaze." That got a laugh out of Max before she left her room.

Chloe turns on some music before laying on her back and smoking. Thinking of everything that Max told her. Despite all the lying Rachel had done, Chloe still couldn't help viewing her as a friend, which only caused more turmoil inside of herself about this entire thing. After several hits, the edges of the anger she was feeling was dulled but not gone, not by a long shot. "How could you have lied to me about everything? I honestly thought we were friends, Rachel."

Chloe's phone chimes with a new text. She pulls out her phone and sees that it's from Rachel's mother.

**Rose Amber: Chloe, I know you've heard about what happened to Rachel. We're holding her funeral the day after tomorrow. I know it will be tough, but I'd like to have you there to say one last goodbye to Rachel. You were her closest friend. Please let me know when you decide. I will understand if you don't want to go.**

Chloe read that message and tears form in her eyes. It really hit home at that moment that Rachel really was gone and never coming back. That one of her best friends was now lying in either some morgue or some funeral home, never to show the world her warmth or light ever again. Chloe throws her phone on the bed and curls up into a ball as the hurt of losing her friend washes over her, making her cry uncontrollably.

Several minutes later Max comes walking back into the room, freshly showered. Upon seeing Chloe crying, Max rushes to the bed and gets in with her and holds her while she cries along with Chloe, feeling terrible about what she was feeling. Chloe holds onto Max with a death grip, not daring to lose another friend ever again.

After an hour of crying started, Chloe had finally calmed down and was just glad to have Max here with her. "Are you okay?" Max asks in concern.

"No. But I think I'm done with the water works for now. Thank you for being here with me." Chloe says, truly thankful to have Max with her right now.

"I'll always be with you, Chloe. Forever." Max says soothingly and reassuring.

Chloe clears her throat before sitting up. "Sorry you had to see me like that." She says sounding back to normal.

"Don't worry about it." Max says stroking Chloe's back comfortingly.

Chloe lets go of Max and wipes the tears from her face. She picks up her phone and hands it to Max to show her the text. "I got a text from Rachel's mom." Chloe explains as Max takes the phone and reads it. "I don't know if I want to go."

"Chloe...I think you have to go." Max says after reading the text a couple times. "I think you need to say your goodbyes to Rachel."

Chloe shakes her head, really not wanting to go. "I just don't want to go and have people seeing me crying. It's not my style."

"What if I went with you?" Max offers.

Chloe looks to Max and smiles. "You'd do that for me? You never even met Rachel."

"I didn't." Max admits before thinking back to all the stuff they did to find Rachel. "But after going through that investigation I feel like I know her, if only a little."

"That makes one of us." Chloe says looking away, still feeling a little angry at Rachel for all the lying she did.

Max looks at Chloe sadly. "You might not have known everything, but you know you were her friend and that she was yours. I really think you need to go."

Chloe looks back to Max before nodding and taking back her phone. "You're right, of course." Chloe says before pulling up the text again.

**Chloe: Thank you for letting me know. I'll be there. If there's anything I can do, let me know.**

**Rose: Thank you, Chloe. That means the world to James and I. We'll see you there.**

"There." Chloe says throwing the phone back on the bed. "No backing out now."

"Is there anything I can do for you right now?"

Chloe smirks at that. "Just chill with me for a while. I still haven't finished getting my blaze on. Then we'll go talk to the police so they can stop pestering my Mom." Chloe says picking her joint back up.

"Yeah, that's smart, Chloe. Get fucked up then go talk to the police." Max says with a teasing snort.

"Wouldn't be the first time." Chloe says with a slick smirk. "And I'll be damned if I talk to any authority figure without a little buzz."

* * *

The police questioning didn't take long since Chloe didn't remember much of being drugged. But she told them everything that she knew and now, several hours later, Chloe comes back into her room with her hands behind her back and a mischievous look on her face. "That impish look always scares me." Max says with a laugh.

Chloe holds her hand up showing David's spare keys to Blackwell. "Care for a midnight swim? The Blackwell pool is ours." Chloe offers jangling the keys, trying to be tantalizing.

"If we go we're going to get in trouble by security. We've done this before." Max says with a knowing smile.

"Who cares? We need to go and blow off some steam. It's been a while since I went swimming and this has been a cray week so far without an end in sight, I think we deserve it. Splish splash?"

Max laughs at Chloe's carefree argument. "You're right. We hella deserve it. Splish splash, but you have to do something for me first."

"What's that?" Chloe ask with a big smile, glad Max is willing to participate in some semi-illegal hijinks.

"You need to put David's gun back before he changes the lock on the gun locker." Max says before giving Chloe a knowing smirk.

"How'd you...right, forgot for a moment." Chloe walks over to her coat and pulls out the gun in question. "Alright, future girl. I guess I don't need it since Nathan and that sleazy Jefferson are getting locked away for a long while." Max and Chloe walk out of her room with their arms around each other. "Did you actually start say 'hella' though? I think I'm a good bad influence on you."

* * *

Chloe slides the key into the door's lock and unlocks it while Max was acting as the look out. She remembered the last time they broke into the pool and was keeping an eye open for the security guards. Luckily, so far, none could be seen. Chloe opens the door and taps Max on the shoulder before strolling in like she owned the place with Max following close behind her.

"I can't wait to get into that heated water!" Chloe says with contagious excitement.

Max couldn't help but laugh. "We still have to play it cool, okay? I still go to school here."

Chloe turns back to Max, looking like she didn't have a care in the world right now. "You've been here before. You'll know when something is coming." Chloe points out before gesturing towards the locker rooms. "Boy or girls?" She asks with a cute smile.

"Girls, of course."

"Girls? Ohh la-la." Chloe says before opening the door to the girl's locker room. "Let me see if the pool is heated." Chloe says before running off towards the pool.

After everything that's happened, it was good to see Chloe acting cheerful, even if it was just a small facade to hide her pain. She knew that the sadness wasn't going away any time soon, but she was glad Chloe could take a moment to just enjoy herself. Max follows after her and sees Chloe sitting by the darkened pool, dipping her hand in the water and splashing around.

Chloe looks up at Max approaches to pool. "Max, try to find the light for the pool. I want to see the sharks!" Chloe says kicking her feet with excitement.

"Otters don't like sharks. They bite." Max says with a laugh.

"So do I. Hit that light!" Chloe says playfully.

Max laughs and heads into the lifeguard's room behind her, switching on the lights for the pool. Chloe gets up and undresses down to her underwear before diving into the pool. Max comes out and undresses as well before doing a cannon ball yelling. "Bungalow!"

Once Max surfaces Chloe smirks at Max playfully. "Why look, an otter in my water." Before mimicking the Jaws theme.

Max rolls her eyes at that. "You're so obvious. And I still get freaked out by that movie even now, so stop." Max says before splashing Chloe with water, making Chloe cry out. "I still can't even watch any of those shark shows."

Max and Chloe splash at each other for a few minutes before they float on the water on their backs, just relaxing and enjoying the moment. "I wish Rachel was here. She would totally love being in here at night." Chloe says longingly. "Wish you guys had met each other."

"I do, too." Max agrees with a sad smile.

Chloe sighs before standing upright again. "You're real powerful Max, would it be possible to go back and save her?"

Max stands upright as well and looks to the water, in deep thought. "I don't think I could, but if you ask Steve he might be able to."

Chloe turns to Max, looking at her questioningly. "What is the deal with Steve anyway?"

That makes Max chuckle and shake her head. "I don't know much about him. All I know is that he doesn't exist in this timeline because he went back in time and killed his dad."

"Whoa!" Chloe says with wide eyes of shock. "Is he like...dangerous?"

"Maybe, but not to us. At least I hope not." Max says trying to sound reassuring. "The only other thing I know is that Juliet Watson is his sister."

"The reporter for the school newspaper?" Chloe asks looking puzzled at that one. "Huh? What are the odds of him turning up here and running into his sister?"

"You should have seen him when he found out. First time he actually looked ghostly since I met him." Max says with a laugh, remembering the terrified look on the jerk's face.

"Interesting, but that's not what I meant about his deal. I mean why is he helping you out...helping us out?" Chloe clarifies as she and Max swam towards the edge of the pool.

Max looked perplexed for a moment, her brow furrowed in thought. "I know this is going to sound stupid, but after he offered to help save you and Arcadia, I really didn't ask what he got out of this."

Chloe gives Max a blank look and when she spoke it was in a dry monotone. "Wow, what a way to boost my confidence in him." Chloe sighs and looks at Max thoughtfully. " So, all we know is he's a dick...granted a friendly one, but still a dick. That, and that he's seem some serious shit."

"What do you mean?" Max asks, confused by that.

"When I was talking to him, he made me mad and I said something that was...less than tactful." Chloe says with a slight wince. "He really didn't tell you anything?"

"Well, he doesn't like to talk about his past and I'm the first person he's talked to in god knows how long." Max shrugs, not really knowing.

"Well, he told me that he walked away from some destroyed city more than once. And the way he talked about it...it scared me." Chloe says shivering at the image of Steve's face inches from hers. "I honestly thought he was going to punch me."

That made Max balk. She had seen Steve mad, but angry enough to resort to violence. "It's weird, he's friendly one moment and the next he's a unbearable asshole. I wonder what happened to him to make him that way?"

"You're going to have to ask him." Chloe says with a nervous laugh. "No way in hell do I want him back in my head where he could possibly hurt me. At least out here he can't do anything to us."

Max laughed at that. "Chloe, I seriously doubt he would actually hurt us. If he wanted that all he'd have to do is leave and let us try and figure this out on our own."

"I dunno, Max. That look he gave me...he was close to snapping." Chloe says then shakes her head. "Maybe we should try and do this without him anyway?"

Max thought about that for a moment. "Not yet, if he gives us any other reason to not trust him, then we'll do this on our own. But right now, he's more of an asset than anything we have."

Chloe looked at Max thoughtfully for a moment before smiling. "Your power has changed you, Max. You're not so chickenshit anymore. I still can't believe how you manipulated David like you did. It was awesome!" Chloe says, clearly impressed.

"Thanks, girlfriend." Max says coyly.

"You know what I mean." Chloe says as they put their arms on the edge of the pool to talk without bobbing up and down. "You're becoming like this force of nature."

"More like luck of nature." Max thinks back on all the things she was fortunate enough to do with her powers. "Who knows, maybe I'm just stumbling back and forth in time, trying to make things right. These things get very complicated the more you think about them."

"You didn't stumble when you came back to save me, Max." Chloe says with a small grateful smile.

Max smiles back. "No, that was a deliberate step, but none of this would have happened if you weren't there to kickstart my power."

"So it's time to start moving forward in time. And we're obviously connected since without me you never would have discovered your power, right?"

"Absolutely." Max says with a warm smile. "You make me feel like I know what I'm doing."

"And you make me feel like I have a reason for still being in Arcadia Bay. God knows why you hang out with me." Chloe says with a sad smile. "You're like the smartest, most talented person I've ever known. I'm sure you have Blackwell bros all over you."

Max shudders and groans in disgust at that. "Ew! I don't want any Blackwell bros over me." Max says before giving Chloe a sad look. "There was someone in my life, before all this happened, but they're gone now."

"What happened to him?" Chloe asks curiously, wanting to learn more about Max.

"Her, actually. And nothing really happened. She was here one moment and gone the next." Max says with a heavy sigh, talking about Chloe to Chloe, which to Max was really weird.

Chloe bumps Max with her arm. "No worries. Once you get over yourself and get your power fully under your control, you're going to make the world bow."

"As long as you're there with me." Max says before the thought of the tornado coming brought fear back into her heart.

Chloe noticed and gives Max a reassuring smile. "Don't look so glum, you and Casper are here to save me, remember? I trust you, both of you. I'm never leaving you again."

Max smiles back at Chloe, feeling like together they could do anything. "Okay, now I'm getting cold in here."

Chloe splashes Max real quick and laughs. "That's because we're yapping instead of attacking each other, otter-versus-shark style. But I think I've had my pool experience for the year, let's jet."

"Yeah, let's call it a draw. We gotta get out of here before security shows up." Max says as they climb over the edge of the pool. They get dressed while Max keeps looking over to the side entrance to the pool. The chemicals clinging to her made her feel disgusting. "I feel like we just went swimming in Chlorine Bay."

"You look cute with your hair soaked in chemicals." Chloe comments offhandedly.

"Thanks, you would know." Max says before looking over her shoulder again. "Okay, let's hide before they show up." Max says as she and Chloe go back into the locker room, waiting for security to search the place.

After 20 minutes though, no one showed up. Max walks out, looking around but didn't see anybody. "Huh, weird." Max says before going to find Chloe, hiding in the space between the wall and the lockers. "No ones coming, let's just get out of here."

"Alright, but I thought you said security would search this place when we broke in." Chloe says, confused as they walk out to the pool area again.

"I thought they would. They did last time." Max says, wondering where they were as they circled the pool and went out the side entrance. They walk outside, being sneaky as they make their way to the parking lot. It proved fruitless as no security guards were anywhere in sight. "This is very weird, Chloe. Last time we almost go busted three different times."

"Hey, I'm not looking this gift horse in the mouth." Chloe says before thinking about it. "Where'd that saying come from anyway?"

"Don't know, but let's get out of here before we get caught." Max says before they run to Chloe's truck. Still there was no guards could be seen, so they manage to get in the truck and roll out without anyone aware of what was going on, including Max, which frankly terrified her.

* * *

Max and Chloe lie on Chloe's bed sleeping peacefully in the morning hours. Chloe, through the night, had moved closer to Max and held her close. Max slowly opens her eyes, feeling the warmth of Chloe laying right up against her. Max smiles happily, glad to have this moment with Chloe again. She reaches down beside Chloe's bed to grab her camera.  _"Always remember this moment."_  Max thinks before lifting the camera to take a picture of them both.

"I'm glad I don't have to move to photobomb you." Chloe says warmly looking at Max.

"You're more than welcome to be a photo hog in any of my pictures." She says before they both put on a smile and Max takes the picture. Max puts the picture and the camera back down onto the floor before rolling back over to face Chloe. "It feels like a completely different world from yesterday."

"It is." Chloe comments with a smile before rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Wish we could just hang out all morning like we used to." Max says whimsically before looking around the room. "I think we should get up, we have to get back to Blackwell soon."

"Oh, does the schoolgirl have a test today?" Chloe says playfully before grabbing the remote to her stereo and turning on some music while they lay there together.

"No, actually all the classes have been canceled for the week because of all this stuff going on. But we haven't heard from Steve in a while. If he's anywhere it'd be at Blackwell." Max says stretching and waking up a little more. "I need to see how he's doing. I'm still a little worried, if we didn't go back to Blackwell, he'd have thought to come here to find us."

"Screw him, if he can just wander off whenever he likes he can wait for us. If it's important he would know you'd be with me." Chloe says with a smirk.

Max thinks about it and shrugs. "Screw him." Max agrees with a chuckle.

Chloe bumps Max with her arm. "Now you're talking like a rebel." She says proudly. Max smiles and they just lay there listening to the music, enjoying each other's company. "I'm so wiped from last night. But it was awesome." Chloe says with a tired groan as she stretches.

"Yeah, I think we both needed that." Max says before turning towards Chloe. "Do you remember when we were kids playing in your backyard?"

"All the time, unless you're thinking of a specific time."

"We were talking about what we'd do when we grow up." Max clarifies.

"Oh yeah, I remember." Chloe says with a bright smile. "You said you wanted to travel around the world taking photos while I came along as your bodyguard and we'd get into crazy adventures. Like Tomb Raider."

Max smiles at that, glad Chloe remembered. "When I'm done with this year at Blackwell, would you maybe want to give it a try?"

Chloe's eyes light up with that. "That'd be hella cool. But who would bank roll that trip? I'm not exactly rolling in money."

"No, but I'm sure we could think of something." Max says confidently. "Maybe Steve could come and be our tour guide. He said he's been all over the world."

"Really? You have a chance to be alone with me and you'd want Casper haunting us?" Chloe asks with a laugh. "Thought it would be hella cool to have a ghost tour guide, though. Even if I can't see him."

Max laughs at that before getting up to get dressed. She looks at the closet thinking about the last time but now that Chloe knows that Rachel is dead, she wasn't sure how Chloe would feel about wearing Rachel's clothes. She walks over to her clothes from last night, but they reeked of chlorine.

"Those clothes have got to smell, see if you can find a suitable outfit in my fashion hole." Chloe says still laying in bed. Max's heart was beating a mile a minute as she went to the closet and opens it. "Hey, there you go! Rachel left a bunch of her clothes with me." Chloe says before looking away with a sad look in her eye. After a moment she looks back to Max and smiles. "She's your size."

"Should I? Would you be comfortable with that?" Max asks cautiously, not wanting to upset Chloe again.

Chloe rolls her eyes at the question. "They're clothes, Max. You'll get more use out of them than me."

"I dunno, they aren't really my style." Max says looking back to the clothes.

Chloe gets out of bed and walks to the closet. "Max, you might have awesome powers, but you don't have style." She says teasingly. "Besides, I saw how you looked in the future, I'm sure you could rawk those clothes if you give them a chance. You can always rewind back to your chlorine brand t-shirt and generic jeans."

"You suck!" Max says slapping Chloe on the arm playfully. "I like my shirt and jeans! But it would be cool to change it up every now and then I guess."

"How could you go from punk back to this little awkward hipster so quick?" Chloe asks teasingly. "Stop second-guessing yourself, Max! Put this on and let that inner punk-rock girl back out. You can definitely afford to take chances. Whenever and wherever you want to try...for example, I dare you to kiss me."

Max's heart skipped a beat at that. "Really?"

"I double dare you, kiss me now." Chloe says, egging Max on. Without missing a beat, Max leans up, holding Chloe by her shoulders, and kisses her on the lips, a warm feeling spreading through Max's body upon contact. Chloe takes a couple steps back, shocked Max actually did it. "Damn, you're hardcore, Max!"

The reaction confused Max for a moment, using this moment to look at Rachel's clothes and think.  _"If Steve showed Chloe my future self and my apartment, then she had to have seen all those paintings. Unless...No I didn't turn the kiss one back around. Was Chloe somehow unable to see it? Or...Did Steve actually block that picture from Chloe?"_

Max thought about that for a minute before turning back to Chloe, suddenly very nervous. "Chloe...about that kiss..."

"You better not rewind and take that back. You know I'm hotter than those Seattle and Portland art-holes, right?" Chloe interrupts with a warm smile.

Max smiles at that, but didn't feel any less nervous about talking about it. "When Steve was showing you my future...did you happen to see those paintings?"

"Yeah, they were awesome." Chloe says with a smirk. "Why do you ask?"

"So you saw...all of them?" Max asks shyly.

Chloe raises an eyebrow at that. "You're cute when you're nervous. What's all this about, Max?"

Max blushes heavily and takes a breath to steady herself. "That kiss, I know you dared me to do it, but I was wondering...did you really want me to kiss you?"

Chloe tilts her head to the side and smiles at Max before walking back up to her. "Does this answer your question?" Chloe asks before leaning down and kissing Max on the lips.

Max's body relaxes and she returns the kiss, wrapping her arms around Chloe, pulling her closer, deepening the kiss. They both close their eyes as they kiss passionately. It was quite evident that both of them were enjoying it as they moaned in pleasure.

Chloe was the one to end the kiss, but remained in Max's arms, her forehead against Max's. "As much as I'd like this to continue, I'd think my mom would be upset if she heard us fooling around up here."

Max enjoyed just having Chloe this close to her after all these years. "Yeah, I don't want an angry Joyce coming up to end it." Max says biting her lower lip nervously. "Rain check?"

"Rain check." Chloe says before pulling away from Max and crawling back into bed. Max turns back to the closet with a huge smile as she grabs Rachel's clothes and puts them on. Max turns back to Chloe and struts up to the bed like a runway model. "Lookin' sick, Max!" Chloe says with a wolf whistle. "A couple tats, some piercings and we'll make a thrasher out of you yet."

"Ready for the mosh pit, shaka brah." Max says like a dork.

Chloe squints one eyes and shakes her head. "Maybe not. Now go on down and say hi to Joyce. Free breakfast!" Chloe says before rolling over and grabbing her stash. "I have to, er, wake 'n bake first.

Max rolls her eyes. "I promise not to tell."

"Let's not rewind and find out, 'kay?" Chloe says before sitting up. "And Max, keep that kiss a secret for now, okay? I want to get past this week before we put a label to this." Chloe says gesturing between herself and Max.

Max nods in understanding. "Yeah, that's fine. We've got all the time in the world." Max says before walking out of Chloe's room, heading downstairs.

* * *

Still riding cloud nine from the moment she just had with Chloe, Max walks downstairs, smelling what Joyce was cooking for breakfast. Joyce was humming a tune to herself as she cooked and didn't notice Max walk into the kitchen and flashes her a smile before speaking happily. "Good morning, Joyce."

Joyce turns to Max and looks as if she just saw a ghost for a moment. "Rachel!" Joyce exclaims before realizing it was Max and she shakes her head, feeling silly for being surprised. "I mean, Max. Whew, you startled me." Joyce says with a smile before looking Max over in her new look. "You fit those clothes well. Thank God you're not a hellraiser like her or Chloe."

Max laughs at that. "I raise my own kind of hell every once in a while."

"Don't we all?" Joyce agrees with a smile before frowning and looking at the stairs, thinking about her daughter. "How's Chloe holding up with everything?"

Max looks at the stairs as well with a sad sigh as she thought about all of Chloe's tossing and turning the previous night and when Chloe kept waking up muttering about Rachel. "She's putting on a brave face, but she's hurting over all of it."

"It was a terrible thing that happened to Rachel. She was a good friend for Chloe to have after you left. Oh, those clothes remind me so much of her. Such a sweet girl." Joyce says sadly. "I'd been hoping that Rachel would have shown up or even send a message to Chloe any day now, but what happened to her...just dreadful." Joyce takes a breath before smiling again to Max, trying to brighten the mood a bit before Chloe came down. "I'm thinking of making my eggs and bacon for Chloe today. Maybe that'll cheer her up, if only a little bit. Mind helping me?"

"Sure, what do you need?" Max says with a sad smile.

"The eggs are in the bag by the door and the bacon is in the fridge. Could you grab them for me?" Joyce says while preparing the stove.

"Sure thing." Max says before going to where Joyce said to get the ingredients and help Joyce with the cooking.

"After all these years and everything that's happened, it's great to see you and Chloe together again. She hasn't had a good friend since you or Rachel." Joyce looks over to Max with a sad smile. "Rachel was a smart girl and always landed on her feet. But maybe I didn't know her as well as I thought. Maybe Chloe didn't either."

"I don't think anyone really knew her." Max says honestly as she mixes up the eggs in a bowl. "Everything I hear about Rachel is different when other people talk about her."

"People are always going to talk, Max. And everyone is going to have their own opinion. Unfortunately, that's life for you." Joyce says while frying the bacon. "I just hope that Chloe will be alright after everything she's been through over these last few years. I had begun to actually get worried."

"Chloe's strong, this might be a really hard patch for her, but I'm sure she'll pull through. And I'll be with her through it all." Max states as a matter of fact.

Joyce smiles fondly at Max. "You have no idea how glad that makes me to hear that. I remember the last time I saw you and Chloe in your pirate outfits, and I knew she would never find a better friend. And when you took the rap for that joint, you proved it to me and her."

"Thanks, but it seems like forever ago that Chloe and me were pirates." Max says before passing the bowl of beat eggs to Joyce.

Joyce takes it and pours it into the pan to cook. "Alright, a breakfast fit for us queens...and a king. Go sit at the table. Shouldn't be too much longer."

Max nods and goes to the table to wait. She looks around and sighs in contentment, feeling like everything was going to be okay for the first time since she came back. Until, that is, she looked at the paper laying on the table with the headline "Former Teacher Commits Suicide". Curious, Max picks up the paper and starts reading.

_It has been a very odd week in Arcadia Bay. Acting on a series of tips from David Madeson (Head of Security at Blackwell Academy), police officers descended Tuesday on a bizarre underground chamber, reportedly used by Mark Jefferson, former teacher of_ _"Language of Photography_ _" and Nathan Prescott, student at Blackwell Academy and son of Arcadia Bay's benefactor Sean Prescott, to drug, kidnap, and photograph young women against their will. Although there were no other signs of physical or sexual assault on the victims, the disturbing revelations have sent shock waves through the tranquil city of Arcadia Bay._

_Police officers discovered Mark Jefferson dead in his cell in the middle of the night. The police have not reported the official cause of death sources as of yet, but a source inside the facility says that the former teacher took his own life. Continued on Next Page._

Max's eyes narrow as she read the article.  _"Good, burn in hell forever, asshole."_  Max thinks moving the paper away as Joyce comes over with a plate of food, placing it in front of Max. "Thank you so much, Joyce." Max says before picking up her silverware. "I'm never leaving this table."

"Good. You can clean." Joyce says with a joking smile as Max digs into the food. Joyce walks over to the bookcase, humming a little tune once more, and pulls out a photo album before walking back over to the table and sitting down, opening the album for Max and her to watch. "Seeing you again...ahh, made me remember so much." Joyce says as she flips through the album. "I know these photos don't measure up to your work, Max."

Max chuckles at that after wolfing down everything on her plate. "My favorite photographers probably take pictures similar to yours." Max admits as she looks to the recent pictures of Joyce, Chloe, and David. The pictures make Max think about David and she smiles, thinking about David saving her life. "You really make David happy, Joyce."

"He wants us all to be happy, Max. He just wasn't great at showing it." Joyce says with a longing sigh while turning the page showing pictures of Chloe and Rachel. "But after this whole thing, helping the police bust that teacher and student, he's been much happier lately."

"I bet." Max says before looking at the pictures of Chloe and Rachel. "Oh, I don't think I can rock this outfit like Rachel could."

"You have your own cool style." Joyce says reassuringly to Max before turning the page again, this one had pictures of Chloe, Max, and William from five years ago, except for the one that Max burned when she traveled back to let William die.

That memory still hurt Max when she thought of it, even to this day. It was one of the most painful experiences she had to let happen, because the alternative course was far worse. She still felt guilty about it and still felt responsible for Chloe losing her father. It was just another one of those times that Max wished she never received her powers in the first place. Messing with time had a nasty habit of messing with you right back.

At that point, Chloe comes walking down the stairs and into the dinning room. "Mornin'. She says glumly before sitting down next to Max at the table.

"Morning, Chloe." Joyce says getting up and grabbing a plate of food for Chloe. "How are you doing today, hon?"

"I've been better." Chloe admits honestly, looking down to avoid her mother's gaze of sorrow.

"I made your favorite for breakfast." Joyce says bringing Chloe a plate of eggs and bacon.

Chloe rubs her hands together and licks her lips in anticipation. "This looks so good, thanks mom."

"You are very welcome." Joyce says smiling brightly, surprised she heard Chloe actually say thank you and mean it, it had be a long while since that's happened.

Max noticed that too and looks at Chloe thoughtfully as Joyce goes back to the kitchen to grab herself some food. Max couldn't help but stare, so far this trip had turned out better than she hoped for. "You're staring, Max." Chloe says quietly with a small smile, knowing she interrupted Max's line of thought.

"Sorry." Max says hurriedly, returning her gaze to the photos with a slight blush of embarrassment.

"Don't be." Chloe says in between bites, misinterpreting Max's embarrassment. "Mom has been very good to me, and I haven't shown her any gratitude for it, so I decided to give it a try. Same thing with my step-" Chloe was interrupted as the front door opens and David walks in.

"Nice breakfast." David says tiredly as he comes into the dinning room in his Blackwell uniform.

Joyce comes out to the dinning room as well, not expecting to see David this morning. "David, you're back already?" Joyce asks confused about his presence here.

"I have to take a nap after writing up vandalism reports last night." David says with an exhausted gruff tone, but thankfully, to Max at least, he didn't sound as gruff as the last time he entered the house before.

Joyce crosses her arms and looks at David worriedly. "What happened?"

"Some little shitass punks tore up the lawn in front of the dorms last night. This is what happens at these P.C. bullshit colleges. Entitled students destroying the campus!" David says, flaring up his righteous anger.

That caught Max off guard though.  _"Okay, that's new. Well, that might explain why we didn't get caught last night at the pool...but what the hell happened in front of the dorm?"_ Max looks over at Chloe just as Chloe looked at her, just as confused about this new event as Max was.

"Do you know for sure it was Blackwell students?" Joyce asks curiously.

David shrugs his shoulders. "Who else would do it? But I'm going to bust them like I did that shithead teacher and that punk Prescott." David looks over to Max and Chloe and puts on a small smile. "Morning." He greets, his voice less gruff before he sat down while Joyce goes and gets him a plate of food as well. "How are you doing, Chloe? I know today must be hard for you."

"I'm fine." Chloe lies unconvincingly her attitude flaring up without her meaning to. Chloe coughs uncomfortably moving pieces of food around her plate to distract her while she said. "Sorry, it's been a rough few days. I didn't mean to snap at you."

David was caught off guard, Joyce was caught off guard, hell, even Max was caught off guard by what Chloe just did. "To be honest, I was half expecting to hear a smartass comeback." David says with a bit of a laugh.

"Give it time, I'm sure it'll turn up again." Chloe says jokingly.

_"Wowser...Chloe is actually getting along with David for once. That's...just weird."_  Max thinks in delighted surprise.

"I wanted to apologize to you too, Max." David says, focusing his attention on Max. "When I snapped at you Monday, I wasn't having the best of days. And seeing that joint in Chloe's room just set me off. So I'm sorry. I know that wasn't a very good first impression of me, but I hope I can change your mind with some time."

That made Max blink and stay quiet for a few moments before her shock allowed her to speak again. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that, too. Don't worry about it." David nods in thanks as Joyce gives David his food and he begins eating as well. As they sat there, Max couldn't help but feel glad that the household wasn't at each other's throats like the last time, it gave her a lot of hope. But then she remembered the new event at Blackwell and couldn't help but be curious about it.

Chloe finishes her food and puts the silverware on the plate. Chloe and Max get up and take their plates to the sink to rinse them off before Chloe calls back to them. "Alright, I think me and Max need to get out of here. I gotta take her back to Blackwell."

"Stay out of trouble you two." David says in between bites.

Chloe pulls her keys out of her pocket as they go to the front door. "No promises!"

Chloe and Max walk outside and once they were free from prying ears, Max turns to Chloe. "We need to check out the dorms."

"Like you're reading my mind. I was thinking the same thing." Chloe says with a smirk before frowning. "I need something to occupy myself today."

Max nods in understanding as she and Chloe get into Chloe's truck and head to Blackwell.


	8. Unexpected Detour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I have been absent, I've been busy rewriting this again and needed some time to get it exactly how I wanted. I didn't change a lot except for what happens in this chapter and beyond, but if you want to give it another look, feel free to do so.

**Chapter 8: Unexpected Detour**

"Holy shit." Max muttered under her breath as she and Chloe looked around the courtyard in front of the dormitories. Parts of the courtyard had deep gouges in the ground, the ground around those gouges looking like glass, and the ground around the glass was burned with scorch marks. Several of light posts in the area were cut in two, the edges that should have met were melted by something with extreme heat. The rest of the courtyard was filled with students, looking at the scene and talking, trying to figure out what happened.

But that wasn't what Max's exclamation was about. Around the dormitory building itself was a thin, almost unnoticeable shell, a barrier between the outside and the inside. "What the hell is going on?" Max asks, looking very confused at what she was seeing.

"It looks like a war zone. There's no way a couple of Blackwell dorks could have done this." Chloe states while looking on in wonder.

The sound of frantic meowing, drew Max's attention to the dorm building upper level where her room was located and saw Blue sticking his head out through the wall looking right at Max and Chloe, his fur standing on end with fright. "Chloe...we need to get to my room, now!" Max exclaims, going around the caution tape at a jog with Chloe right on her heels.

Max burst through the shell with ease, same with Chloe, and they went through the front door, raced up the steps to the girl's dorms, then ran down the hall to her room, following a speckled trail of black ectoplasm, on the floor. "Yeah, that can't be good." Chloe observes as her eyes keep darting to the black goo.

Once Max opened the door she balked at what she saw. Laying on the ground, almost completely transparent, and was becoming more so by the moment, was Steve. Max got closer to him as Chloe came into the room and closed the door behind her only seeing a pool of ectoplasm on the floor. "What's going on, Max? You look...pale, are you okay?"

"It's Steve. He's fading." Max said before she noticed a hole on his torso. As Max looked over him she noticed that it wasn't just one hole, but four. "He's...dying...I think."

"How can a ghost die? And more importantly, what the hell could kill a ghost?" Chloe asks in confusion before exclaiming in pain. "Ow! What the hell was that?" Chloe shouts lifting her leg and holding the back of her ankle.

Max turns to see Blue walking away from Chloe and towards her. He approaches her and bites down her ankle as well. "Ow! What the fuck are you doing cat?" Max cries out, rubbing at her stinging ankle.

Chloe was starting to wobble on her feet as she put her hand on her head to stop the room from spinning. "Max...I don't feel so..." Chloe says before her eyes roll up into her head and she falls onto Max's bed, unconscious.

"Chloe!" Max exclaims in worry and goes to stand, but as she did the world started spinning for her as well and she fell onto her side facing towards Steve. She had a clear view as Blue walked over to him, bit down on his ankle, then lay down on top of him before the room fell away, fading to black.

* * *

Brightness blinded Max as she opened her eyes. It took several moments and lots of blinking to allow her to see her new surroundings. She was standing in a parking lot filled with cars in a big city, standing next to an orange jeep, a rather old jeep going by the patches of rust, dents, and scratches. A light snow was falling, adding to the several inches of snow packed to the ground from all the cars driving over it. Without knowing how or why, Max just knew that this was Detroit, on February 6th, 2006.

The driver and passenger doors to the old orange jeep open and Steve gets out of the driver's seat, wearing the same clothes he wore since the day that Max met him. But the state of him was what drew Max's attention and concern, his face had several large purple and black bruises and his left eye was almost swollen shut. His lip had a cut on the left corner of his mouth and he had a tissue plugged up his left nostril that was spotted with blood.

Once he got out, he leaned back into the car and pushed his seat up before moving out of the way. A eleven year old Juliet, wearing blue jeans, old blue rubber boots, and a pink winter jacket, jumped out of the jeep. She grimaced at Steve's current state as she walked passed him towards the apartment building across the street from the parking lot, though the first floor had been converted to a diner.

"No, seriously, what were you thinking trying to punch that muscle head?" Max tore her eyes away from the younger Juliet to see the girl who came out of the passenger side of Steve's jeep. She was about an inch taller than Max, with raven black hair, straightened and flowing down to the middle of her back. She wore skinny jeans, tattered sneakers, and a black hoodie over a black HIM t-shirt with a blue butterfly on the front of it. Again, without knowing how or why, Max knew this girl's name was Carla. Carla's brown eyes glared daggers at Steve. "For someone who claims to be smart, that was an incredibly stupid thing to do."

Pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, Steve drew one out of the pack, puts it to his lips and lights it before taking a drag. "The fuckstick shoved you. What was I supposed to do? Let that slide? Fuck that!"

"And because of that you're suspended for a month." Carla scolded in disdain. "You're not my protector, Steve."

"On the upside, it gives me more time to work on those computers and make some cash. And for the record, I know I'm not your protector, but I will not let some assclown think he can do wha-" Steve's oncoming rant was interrupted by the sounds of screeching tires piercing the sound of the busy city. Steve turned and saw a white car drift around a corner, faster than it should have, followed by three cop cars. Steve looked towards his younger sister, who was standing in the middle of the road, staring wide eyed at the car approaching her.

Before Steve could say another word, the car slammed into Juliet, sending her small body flying over the car. Max covered her mouth at the sight, no believing what she just witnessed. "JULIE!" Steve shouts, extending his right hand towards his little sister. Time slowed, just like when Max first discovered her powers, and time rewound, snapping Steve and Max backwards through the currents of time.

They appeared on top of a parking garage across from a school earlier that morning. Max was standing next to Steve's jeep as the driver's door opens and Steve jumps out, looking completely fine. "What the fuck?" His eyes were darting all over the place, lost and confused about what was going on. He looked at his watch and blinked as he saw the time before he looked at the school building as students were going in to start their day. "No, seriously, what the actual fuck?" Steve asks breathlessly as he felt his face for the lumps and bruises of a fight that hasn't happened yet.

The scene flashed white, and Max was back in that parking lot. This time when Steve got out of the jeep, he didn't have a scratch on him. His eyes were glued to the street corner that white car was going to come from and together, Steve, Carla, and Juliet started walking across the street. As soon as they got half way, the sound of screeching tires came and that white car started speeding towards the trio.

Steve, knowing the car was coming, managed to grab Juliet and Carla by the backs of their coats and pulled them back with all of his strength. The car sped past, barely missing them, as all three of them fell to the ground. After a moment, Steve broke into joyous laughter as he pumps his arms in the air in victory. "Fuck yeah! Take that destiny! You don't know who you're fucking with!" Steve shouts, wooing and laughing with an adrenaline high.

The scene flashes white, and now Steve and Carla were standing in the alleyway behind the apartment building, wearing work clothes for the diner part of the building. They were leaning against the building, Steve with a lit cigarette in his hands, looking freaked out over something. "Carla, what do you know about time travel?"

This time, Carla was the one who looked freaked out, but before she could say anything, the sky brightened and they both looked up. There were hundreds of shooting stars flying through the sky, but there was no single path for the lot of them, they were criss-crossing and flying through the sky in every direction. Max looked at them with amazement, knowing that this was the first sign of a coming disaster, like in Arcadia Bay.

"No...not again." Carla says, her voice breathless but filled with dread. That surprised Max more than anything she's seen so far in these memories. Carla knew about what was happening, and it sounded like she knew from experience. Carla looked back to Steve in bewilderment. "Steve, tell me everything."

The scene flashes again, multiple times, showing Max scenes of Detroit along with some dialogue. The sun was shinning and the air felt hot. It was over 100 degrees during one of the coldest months of the year. "I've been through this before. It didn't go well for me. You're going to have to make a impossible choice." Carla's voice rings out over the scene.

The next scene showed heavy clouds over Detroit, but on top of those clouds was another city, a ruined city filled with blackness that shadowed over the entire ruins. "How can I choose between Detroit and Julie? I can't do that." Steve says, his voice hard and filled with determination.

The next scene was of Detroit at night. One by one, the stars in the sky were going dark, leaving only an empty void above everything. "I'm sorry, Steve, but you're going to have to make that choice. Only you can do that now." Carla says, sounding defeated as if she already knew the outcome.

The scene flashes again and Max could feel the ground begin to shake violently. Max watched on in horror as the massive earthquake collapsed large buildings, caused various spots through the city to explode into balls of fire, and the sound of thousands of people screaming and crying in fear were suddenly silenced as the devastation spread, ending their lives. It lasted only a minute, but it felt like an eternity to Max.

Max was pulled from her spot above the ruined city and into one of it's suburbs surrounding it just as a heavy rain started to fall. Steve was half running, half limping down the street, passing collapsed houses towards the cul de sac at the end with Blue running next to him. Steve was in bad shape, Max noticed, his right arm dangled uselessly to his side, a piece of charred orange metal sticking out of his shoulder, a gash on his right leg that left a trail of blood in his wake, and there was blood trickling down from his hairline, plastering his bangs to his skin.

"JULIE!" Steve shouted with dread as he approached one of the collapsed homes surrounding the dead end street. With his good arm, he tried his best to dig through the debris, continuously calling out for his sister, hoping he could hear anything from her. But as he struggled to move a wooden beam, he saw Juliet in the arms of Carla, who seemed to be protecting her until the house collapsed on top of them.

Steve's breath caught in his throat as he checked their pulses, but finding none on either of them. "No...please God no..." Steve says, falling to his knees before them, despair overwhelming him. "No...no..." Steve repeats as tears stream from his eyes. "No..." Anger started to take hold in his voice and he balled his left hand into a fist so tight that his fingers punctured his skin before getting to his feet and glaring at the sky. "NO!" Steve shouts, extending the word with his cry of anguish, fear, and anger as he screamed at the top of his lungs.

At the height of his scream, the world seemed to bend around him and a massive pressure was pushing Max away from Steve before there was a snapping sound and suddenly Max was pulled towards Steve like he had his own gravity well. Between one eye blink and the next, Max and Steve were back on top of the parking garage across from the school, exactly as when Juliet was hit by that car. The driver's door of the jeep opens and Steve jumps out, again looking lost and confused before a look of pure determination overtook him. "No." Steve says simply before walking away, his cat faithfully following him.

The scene flashes and Max saw the sun and moon rise and fall over and over along with the signs and the earthquake before jumping back to that Monday again and repeating itself. "I don't care how long it takes, I don't care what I have to do, I will save everyone!" Steve's voice rings out with anger and determination as the scene kept repeating more times than Max could count.

Images kept popping up as the scene repeated itself. Steve and Juliet driving away from Detroit on that Monday to get her out of harm's way. Steve trying to warn everybody about the earthquake, but no one believed him. He tried calling in bomb threats for the entire city, but was only arrested and detained until the earthquake happened. Everything he tried only failed over and over again and with each try, his confidence continuously diminished.

After a while, of cycling through these images, a face and a name appeared in Max's mind, filling it with a burning fire of loathing. Victor Maguire was middle aged, tall, and had brown hair, cropped close to his head. He was built like a championship boxer and had enough features that Max knew that without a doubt this man was a tough son of a bitch.

The images changed again, this time showing Steve investigating Victor, seeing that he was involved with the car that originally killed Juliet. He also had the Detroit DA assassinated, orchestrated a raid on a police station housing evidence against him, and set Detroit into a state of emergency as with all of this and the signs of the earthquake people assumed the world was coming to an end. Then he discovered that Victor was the one that killed his father, John Watson, a reporter investigating the corruption of judges by the Irish mob, lead by Victor.

Then the bombshell that pushed Steve over the edge was finding out that Victor had raped his mother, Mary Watson. The trauma of it resulted in long bouts of depression and, when John was killed, caused her to give up on life and her children. What really set him off was finding out that the rape happened ten months before his birth, which made Steve look into his parentage and his worse fear was confirmed. His biological father was the one who destroyed his family and was looking to destroy his hometown.

A new theory came to Steve's mind, if Victor was responsible for so much pain and misery, then maybe that was the scale that needed to be balanced to end this insanity. Images appeared showing Steve trying to get at Victor, hoping that if he could stop him the earthquake that would kill thousands wouldn't happen. But, again, no matter what he did he couldn't seem to stop his birth father or the earthquake. Steve's screams of anguish and rage ring through the images as he fruitlessly continues to try again and again.

The cycle of images stops during the aftermath of the earthquake. It was raining over the city laying in ruins, flames roaring from multiple areas that could be seen from Max's vantage point on a hill in a cemetery. Juliet lays under a tree, having passed out over dealing with the trauma of seeing her hometown destroyed and knowing all her friends were dead. Steve sat on the ground, he arms resting on his knees, his head hung low, his eyes closed, and his shoulders slumped with Blue sitting next to him, looking at the ruined city. Carla stood beside him, looking at the destroyed city with tears streaming from her eyes. "Mom...Dad..." Carla looks down to Steve in desperation. "There has to be something we can do."

"There isn't." Steve says simply, his voice sounding hollow and dead. "Trust me, we've done everything we could."

Carla raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Okay, you know my bullshit alarm blares when you lie, so tell me what we didn't try that you're holding back?"

Steve looks up at Carla with dark, sunken eyes filled with defeat. "There is one thing I've kept up my sleeve. Maybe it is time I played it."

"Care to share with the class?" Carla asks, folding her arms over her chest impatiently.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Steve gets to his feet and faces Carla. "We haven't been able to get to Victor through this week. But I know of a time and place that he'd have his pants around his ankles, both figuratively and literally."

Carla's eyes widen as she understood what he was proposing. "No. No fucking way! Even if you could go back that far, if you do that then you...you... "

"Won't be born." Steve finishes with a nod of confirmation. "But if I'm right, and I'm about 90% sure that I am, then everyone in Detroit, your parents and mine, will be alive and well. If my existence is the price I need to pay, then I'm more than willing to pay it."

"How can I possibly let that happen?" Carla asks breathlessly, not accepting this possibility. "We just have to try again."

"I won't go through this week again, Carla." Steve says with a grim finality. "I can't. I've lived through this week more times than you could imagine and I tried living through both of the outcomes."

"And how did those work out?" Carla asks curiously.

Steve gives her a blank stare in response. "I'm still here, right? I wonder what that could possibly mean?"

"Okay, there's no need for snark." Carla says as she looks back to the ruined city, she shivered before looking to the ground, looking afraid and thoughtful. "Is there really no other way?"

Steve shook his head solemnly. "I don't think there is." Steve turns towards Juliet as some tears stream from his eyes before he looks back to Carla. "Just look out for her, if this doesn't work. Can you do that for me?"

"Yeah." Carla says before walking up to Steve and pulling him into a hug. "Good luck."

Steve hesitates for a moment before returning the hug, holding Carla close to him as he closed his eyes. "You and Julie are the most important people in my life. I love you both with everything I have."

Carla broke down in broken sobs as she let Steve go. Steve walks over to Juliet and kneels down, zipping up her coat so she'd be warm. His heart broke as he scuffed her hair a little before standing and closing his eyes. He took a deep breath then started focusing his power towards the past and he snaps his fingers.

"What do you think you're doing, boyo?" A voice with an Irish accent echoes through Max's mind, and suddenly Max was standing in an dark alleyway looking at a revolver pressed against the back of Victor's head, held by Steve's trembling hand.

Again, Max somehow knew exactly when and where she was as she stood in an alleyway in a not so friendly part of town in Detroit on February 25th, 1986. In front of Victor stood a very pretty woman, looking terrified at the scene playing out in front of her.

Steve kept his full attention on the back of Victor's head and thumbs the hammer back on the revolver. "Go." Steve says, his voice carrying a air of authority to it as he spoke to the woman. "You don't want to see what's about to happen." Steve warns, his eyes sunken and pitiless, so much without hope that the woman ran to get away from him just as much as Victor.

Max knew, like she did with everything else, that this woman was Steve's mother. She knew that this was the day that Victor Maguire was supposed to rape her and impregnate her with the baby that would one day become Steve. Mary rushed out of the area with full speed and not looking back.

"I'm telling you, you're making a huge mistake here, boyo." Victor growls out in warning, acting like this wasn't a bid deal that it obviously was.

"Shut up!" Steve shouts at the top of his lungs, showing fear and worry about what he was about to do. "You have taken everything from me. My dad, my mom, my sister, everyone I love." Steve says pressing the barrel tighter against the back of Victor's head. "Everyone, dead...because of you." Steve snarls in unrestrained anger as tears flow from his eyes. "Even now, you're making me lose the only thing you haven't taken. My own damned life."

"Put the gun down and I may let you leave with it, boyo." Victor says in a hard tone, trying to sound as if he was in control. "But I'm going to have to break a few things, I've got my reputation to worry after all. Now, put that-" In an instant, the look of uncertainty leaves Steve's eyes and his hand stopped shaking. He pulls the trigger and blood and brain matter spray onto the wall in front of Victor as he falls to the ground face first, dead.

Steve stood there for a long moment, just looking at what he had just did with a mix of disgust and relief before he drops the gun to the ground . He turns and starts walking down the alley but only made it a few feet away before he had to stop and retch near a couple trashcans.

Feeling all of his strength leave him, Steve could only stand there, using those trashcans to keep him on his feet. When he raised his arm to wipe the bile from his mouth he sees a golden light start to coming from within himself. Looking at his hands, Steve lets out a sobbed laugh as he starts shaking in fear once again.

"Even after all of this...I still don't want to die." Steve says with another sobbed laugh. "I'm still such a pansy."

The ghostly sound of little Juliet giggling could be heard and Steve looks to the starry sky as new images race through his mind. Showing Juliet running up the stairs to their apartment building before the image is replaced with Juliet running up the stairs of their childhood home. The next image was of Juliet holding up her first article she wrote for her school's paper, with Steve behind her with his hands on her shoulder, smiling and proud of his sister before it changed to the same scene, but with their parents, his dad taking his place and his mom kneeling next to Juliet, both looking like they couldn't be prouder.

The next image was of Juliet, Steve, Carla, and a few other people sitting around a campfire, enjoying a long weekend before it was changed to Juliet and their parents walking through some massive amusement park in another state.

He saw images of Juliet growing up with their parents, celebrating birthdays with huge parties, Christmases around an actual Christmas tree with presents not bought from discount stores. It was everything that Steve wanted Juliet to have, watching her grow up in a beautiful young woman. The last image he saw was of Juliet and their parents standing in front of a high school, a red banner of welcome partially visible behind them, and Max knew that she was looking at the campus of Blackwell Academy.

The images fade and the tears coming from Steve weren't from fear. Steve started chuckling, which turned into a laugh, which then became uncontrollable laughter of joyous delight as the light coming from him intensifies filling the entire area with a golden glow. It took a little bit, but Steve calmed down and looked at his glowing hands. "I don't care if that was a hallucination or not, I'm content."

Steve holds his arms out to his sides as if welcoming the ending of his existence. "I'm ready." The force of the energy leaving his body starts knocking loose debris away. The light and force intensifies greater still, starting to push heavier stuff away and filling the area with blinding light. Pain unlike Steve had ever felt filled his entire body as it started to dissolve into nothingness. Max couldn't see anything but bright gold light, but she heard screams of pure agony followed by a deafening explosion.

A moment later the light died, and Max looked around the area. The buildings that surrounded the alleyway were destroyed, nothing but piles of rubble remained. And in the exact center of the devastation was Steve, laying on his back, his eyes fluttering open as Blue licked his face to get his attention, and his expression became one of confusion. "Uh..."

He looks around in alarm before looking all over himself, confused about why he was still there. "What the hell is going on?" He asks himself before pulling his hoodie tighter against himself to block out the cold. That's when he realized he didn't feel cold despite the winter weather he felt before all of this started. In fact, he didn't feel anything, not even the wind that was bustling through the destroyed alleyway. Not knowing what was going on he tries to touch some of the rubble to see if his sense of touch was still working when his hand passed right through the rubble.

Quickly withdrawing his hand he looks at it with wide-eyed horror before trying it again, only to get the same result. "Okay, what the fuck is going on?"

Approaching sirens draw Steve's attention to a police cruiser pulling up to the scene and two cops getting out. "We were called in for a possible shootout, this looks like a bomb went off." One of them says with a little fear. "You don't think anything is still here, do you? I don't want to walk out and get a leg blown off or something."

"Sorry officers." Steve says putting his hands in the air. "I swear I didn't have anything to do with this."

"Just don't go wandering off and you should be...wait, is that a body?" The other officer say, seemingly not hearing Steve.

Steve's fear starts to raise when they either didn't hear him or chose to ignore him. "Oh, guys, please tell me you can at least see or hear me?" The cops walk towards Steve and pass right through him as if he wasn't even there, answering his question. "No, no, no, no, no." Steve says before jumping in front of the cops dramatically. "Hey! Look at me! Piggy, piggy, piggy. Why don't you grab a dozen doughnuts and cram them up your asses!" Steve says trying desperately to get them to notice him, even if it was to yell at him, but it failed miserably as they kept inspecting Victor's corpse without so much as twitching to Steve's presence. "Oh come on!"

"Messing with time has its consequences." A deep voice says from behind Steve, making him turn to see a man standing amidst the rubble in a black hooded trench coat like this was a perfectly ordinary event. His cowl covered his face so well that Steve couldn't see man's face inside it.

"What just happened to me?" Steve asks wearily, thankful to have someone to talk to at least.

The man gestures to Victor's corpse being inspected by the cops as they called for backup. "You just erased yourself from existence, but only the existence you know." The man in black explains as if that should have been obvious. "This state you're in is your punishment for breaking cosmic law." The man says, sounding as if this was a good thing. "But don't worry, there is a chance for you to free yourself from this hell on Earth."

Steve tilted his head, looking puzzled by the man in black's words. "And what exactly do I have to do?" Steve asks in confusion before looking at the man with a semi-concerned glare and taking a step back. "Look, I don't swing that way, bud. So don't even think of getting weird on me."

"Get your mind out of the gutter, jackass." The man in black says with a humorous laugh. "What you have to do is simple really...You must save one life. One particular life. Once you do, you'll be free to move on."

"Who?" Steve asks pleadingly "Who is this person? You've got to give me that much."

"Now where would be the fun in that?" The man in black says with a light chuckle before becoming serious again. "On this journey, you will have to learn the truth for yourself."

Steve just raises an eyebrow at th man. "I don't understand. Who the fuck are you, dude?"

The man in black chuckles in amusement. "You'll see soon enough and you're going to be so pissed when you figure it out. Just remember, save a life, set yourself free." The man in black says before he just disappears in the blink of an eye.

The reality of the situation finally dawned on Steve and he fell to his knees in horror. He succeeded in erasing himself from existence, maybe even saving everyone he fought so hard for, but now it turned around and bit him on the ass since. He was now stuck in this state of non-existence until he could save someone he couldn't even interact with. "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!" Steve's voice echoes in unbridled fury as the scene devolves into a whirlwind of images.

Thousands of images fly by with incredible speed showing thousands of places all around the world, enough so that Max could only see and comprehend a few as they passed by as Steve searched for this one life he needed to save to escape his torment. Max saw Steve roaming through several large cities, Las Angeles, New York City, Sydney, Amsterdam, Rome. She saw him Juneau giving the middle finger to everyone, him sitting on top of one of the pyramids in the Valley of the Kings for weeks straight without moving. Looking through temples and monasteries in Japan, China, Tibet, and all across Asia.

All the while she hear Steve repeating over and over. "Save a life, set you free. Save a life, set you free." One moment it was said perfectly normal, the next moment it gave a psychotic hysterical tone, the next through pained sobs, through furious shouts, over and over again in a spiral of madness that ripped his psyche apart over and over again. All until the images slowed, showing Portland, Oregon, August 11th, 2017.

Steve sat on a bus seat outside a local college and looked up as he noticed that Max had taken a moment to look at everyone on the bus, himself included.  _"Did she just see me?"_  Steve thinks before he notice Max take another look at him before sitting down. His excitement was overflowing, after 30 years of no one noticing him but his cat, someone else had just taken notice of him, however slightly.  _"Could she be the one? Wait, why am I feeling power coming from her? Is she like me? Oh god, finally!"_  Steven thinks, trying to act natural before events that Max had been through started showing up about the incident in the apartment before this all started.

The images flash of everything Max and Steve had gone through since coming back to this time until the previous day while Steve was with Chloe. As soon as the dream walking ended, Steve's eyes open and he stumbles backwards until he fell on his ass. A broad smile spread across Steve's lips, feeling that he actually accomplished something instead of the normal feeling of uselessness. He felt wetness coming from his nose and eyes, and wiped it away, seeing black ectoplasm on his hand. "Damn! That sucked!" Steve says laying back on the ground, taking a this time to rest.

A few minutes later, Chloe wakes up and immediately sits up, looking around to get her bearings and saw that the sun was setting in the distance. She looks around, looking for Steve, but couldn't see him laying on the ground. "Give me a minute." Steve groggily and waves his hand. "Just need to rest for a bit." Chloe then pulls out her phone and starts texting Max. "There you go."

A couple of minute later Chloe gets off the bench and starts walking down the path that would lead her back to the train tracks. Steve gets to his feet unsteadily and starts shambling after her, but Chloe was practically jogging and Steve couldn't keep up. One second he was alone with Chloe, the next there was someone standing between him and Chloe.

She, Steve assumed by the shape of her body, was wearing a black hoodie, torn in several places, over a white stained and soiled shirt along with torn skinny jeans and gray, dirtied sneakers. The hood was up and Steve couldn't make out her features beneath it, but he could feel the hostility towards him. "Uh...Hi." Steve says, caught off guard by this girl's sudden appearance. "Can...Can I help you?"

The girl just stood there, glaring at him, her arms held behind her back. "Please tell me you aren't some kind of discount Envoy of Fate. I honestly don't think I could handle that right now." The girl remained where she was, silent as she continued to stare Steve down. "Look, I need to follow after her, so if you don't mi-"

The girl brings her arms in front of her and holds a long silver bladed sword gleaming with golden light. The hilt seemed to be made of simple metal with black leather cords acting as the handle, the pummel had a large red ruby attached to it. The sword had some unfamiliar script that Steve couldn't make out, but the thing was radiating power. "Ask of me, and I shall give thee a heathen for thine inheritance, and for thine possession the ends of the Earth."

Steve's eyes went as large as saucers as his eyes kept shifting from the girl's hood to her sword. "Okay..." Steve says, dragging out the word as he took a tentative step back. The girl starts walking towards Steve, the ground crunching beneath her feet.  _"Wait, if she's in the physical world, then I don't have to worry...except that sword is giving me a bad feeling...best to be cautious."_

"Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." The girl says with a reverence of divinity as she marches at Steve with a purpose as he kept backing away. "Be wise now, therefore ye kings. Be admonished ye judges of the Earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice in trembling.

Steve was starting to get scared now, after having nothing left in the tank. He kept his eyes on this girl as he quickened his retreat, but the girl matched his pace. "Wait! Can't we talk about this?"

The girl ignores him and continues to approach. "Kiss the son lest he be angry, and ye perish in the way, though his wrath is kindled but a little. Your rampage through time is over, monster. For I have found the one weapon in all of creation that can actually kill you."

"Monster? Rampage? What the fuck are you ta-" Steve says, not understanding what the girl was talking about as the girl lifts the sword over her head, closes the gap between them, and brings it down. "OH SHIT!" Steve exclaims with a high pitched squealing cry as he brings his arms up to defend himself, no matter how futile the gesture was. The sword comes down on Steve, he felt it, which was odd from anything physical, but the next thing is what really shocked him. The sword, on contact with his skin, explodes in a shower of metal flakes that rained down on and through him like any other thing in the physical world.

"Impossible..." The girl says breathlessly as she looks at the hilt of the sword still in her hand. "What...are you?"

"Me? What the fuck was that about, you crazy bitch?" Steve shrieks, feeling like he lost his dignity there for a moment. He gets right up in the girl's face, his anger coming up in full force. For a brief moment, he saw pink hair over her heterochromia eyes, one blue, one green. The next moment, the back of a silver cloak could be seen grabbing the girl and pulling her along with the it as they retreat backwards and disappear.

Steve blinked at that for several moments as he looked around, but he didn't feel like he was being watched. "What? The fuck?" Steve shouts out, angry and confused about what just happened.

The scene changes to that night, Steve walks into the dormitory's courtyard from the direction of the Tobanga Totem, still trying to process what had just happened to him up on that ridge. He felt like he wasn't by himself again and looked towards the center of the courtyard. A person in a golden cloak stood there silently watching him. "Oh great, not another one!" Steve exclaims with displeasure as he glared at the Envoy. "Seriously, do yourself a favor and leave. The last ones that tried this didn't end up too well. I've had a really rough day, and I really don't want to make you my bitch like I made them." Steve threatens, laying on a tone of confidence when he felt at the disadvantage at the moment for still being too tired.

"Oh, I doubt that very much, boyo." The Envoy spoke, but it wasn't in his head like the last one. This one was definitely speaking normally. Steve could tell it was a man in the cloak, and he spoke with a familiar Irish accent.

Steve's eyes widened and he took a fearful step back. "No...it couldn't be." Steve says, before his bravado returned. "Show me your face. Now!"

"The last time you talked like that." The man said, raising his arm to his hood. "You left me in an alley." He lowers the hood to show the face of Victor Maguire, Steve's biological father. "It's been a while, boyo."

"No, no, no, no, no." Steve mutters, taking another step back, the color draining from his face. "Not you, anybody but you."

"Aye, me." Victor says holding out his hand and summoning a sword of star light like any other Envoy of Fate. "With a few upgrades, of course."

"Oh...balls." Steve says as his body tenses, readying for a fight. Victor charges at Steve, but Steve jumps out of the way just as Victor swung his sword, slicing a light post in two, its edge burning from the intensity of the star blade.

Victor snarls as he chases after Steve, swinging his sword wildly. It took every ounce of Steve's concentration to dodge the berserker style resulting in several large gouges in the ground. Steve kept backing away, keeping his distance from Victor before making a mad dash down the sidewalk in front of the dorms. Seeing a opportunity, Steve ducks behind the tree near the prinicpal's building. "That's not going to stop me, lad!" Victor shouts in fury.

He swings his sword horizontally and cuts the tree in half setting it on fire, but Steve wasn't there anymore. He had used the tree as cover to slide beneath and past Victor while he was distracted. He jumps up, quickly spinning, and kicking Victor behind the knee, making him fall to his knee before he started pounding away at his head. "All that strength doesn't amount to much against my speed!" Steve shouts confidently before Victor's fist comes up and slams him in the face with enough force to send him a few feet backwards through the air.

Victor gets to his feet and turns to glare at Steve. "You could have all the speed in the world, but it doesn't amount to much if you can't hit worth a damn."

Steve wipes the ectoplasm running from his nose from the punch and gets to his feet. "I just have to wear you down." Steve says before bouncing from one foot to the next in a boxer's bouncing step. "Come on."

Victor's smile grows predatory as he lets out a low and dangerous laugh. "I see you're ready for a fight. Too bad, boyo. I'm not here to fight, I'm here to kill you. And the funny thing is, I really don't have to move a finger for you to die, my little bastard."

Steve suddenly tenses and cries out in agony as a shaft of starlight comes out of his chest from a source behind him. Smoke rolls out of his lips as he turns his head to see another golden cloak behind him, holding a sword through Steve's chest.

"If only I had a camera. That look of pure dumb confusion would make an excellent part of my collection. Though boys really aren't my style." The man says with a laugh filled with malice. "Ask Max, she knows all about that." The man flicks his head and the cowl falls down showing the smirk of Mark Jefferson.

"That's..." Steve says between clenched teeth, the pain greater than he thought. "Impossible. How...How do you two..." Before Steve could finish he had to scream again as while he was looking at Jefferson, Victor had walked forward and stabbed him through the chest, angling it up to come out of Steve's shoulder blade, away from Jefferson.

"No more words, boyo. Just screams." Victory says with malicious laughter.

All Steve could do was scream as they twisted the shafts of light within him, causing him great pain and causing his body to become more and more transparent. Blue scurries into the courtyard from the school building and jumps up onto Steve's shoulders. His body tenses up as a invisible force knocks Victor and Jefferson away so far and fast that they were gone within an instant.

Gasping in pain, Steve falls to the ground on his hands and knees as ectoplasm falls to the ground from his wounds. Blue stands in front of Steve and nudges him with his head. "G-give me a god damn-" Ectoplasm shoots out of Steve's mouth, blocking his next words.

 _"Am I...going..to die?"_  Steve thinks in disbelief before his contrariness kicks in and he gets to his shaking legs. "Like...hell...I am...I..." Steve's eyes roll up into his head as he tried to take a step and he falls to the ground unconscious. Blue meows frantically before rushing to grab Steve's hood and, showing more strength than the little creature looked like he could handle, drags him towards the dorms before the dream comes to an end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I'm wondering if you guys would like to see more of Steve's story. Leave a comment if you do and if you do how would you like to see it, in this story or in another story? Let me know, cuz I am heavily considering exploring his backstory and I want to know if there is any interest in it.


	9. Apology and Promise (not a new chapter)

Heylo all,

I want to start this off with something I want to get off my chest. I honestly don't feel that I'm that great of a writer (still don't even after re-reading what I've written), and in the overall scheme of things I am definitely not. But, to my utter shock and bewilderment (pleasantly btws), people actually like this story. But you guys do and as this story got several mentions in the Life is Strange reddit (When I found that out it blew my freaking mind) and I can't thank you enough. You guys are the reason why I want to continue writing this story for better or for worse and I cannot thank you enough. So I wanted to write this for you all to clear the air.

What got me into writing were the endings of Life is Strange, which pissed me off so bad I wanted to write my own ending which ended up being this story. I did actually complete this story, but I was unhappy with it and decided to rewrite it. Then Before the Storm came out and I thought it was going to be great (spoiler alert: it was okay at best), but after playing that I started to get fatigue with the series as a whole, which lead to me leaving the story as it is now.

My friends weren't and still aren't very supportive of me writting stories because they've never been into books or reading and they aren't exactly creative thinkers, so finding someone to talk to about the story or to bounce ideas off of was a deterant. So I slacked off and let it go. A few months of gaming later and my drive to write again came back and I was determined to finish this series (if nothing else to get it out of my mind since it was constantly nagging me and yes I meant series since my other story LiS Awakening will be connected with this, but have its own story) so I set back to work to finish it all.

Then the universe decided to make my computer crap out entirely (either as a sign to give up or just the big middle finger life tends to throw us, not entirely sure which). I'm in the process of getting a new computer, but the wait wasn't all bad as it gave me time to come up with ideas to make the story better (again, this is just my opinion)

So to anyone who sees this message, please be patient and forgive me for I'm about to make another rewrite of the story (I can hear any fan of this story groaning and saying "Again? Seriously?" And I don't blame you whatsoever for that, that's totally on me, but I'm just not happy with what I'm writing and how I'm writing it. Please bear with me for a little while because I will be finishing this story with this last rewrite, I swear. So the next time you see a new chapter on this story the narrative will be different, so I apologize for any re-reading you guys will have to do to understand what goes on after the previous chapter. I'm super sorry, but some ideas came that were too good to pass up and require some changes here and there.

Thank you in advance for you patience and understanding.

Until next time, peace out!

Evan trails


End file.
